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Bid to mitigate man-elephant conflict

By Correspondent

KAZIRANGA, Oct 26 - In a bid to mitigate the man-elephant conflict in the fringe villages of the Kaziranga National Park, the Corbett Foundation, a wildlife NGO, has been providing logistic support by constructing tongi ghars. The NGO today provided flash torchlights for all the 35 tongi ghars erected in the fringe villages of Gokhanibor, Bosagoan, Bezgoan and Dumjan.

The chief functionary of the Corbett Foundation at Kaziranga, Dr Navin Pandey informed this correspondent that the NGO had provided raw materials to the fringe villagers to construct tongi ghars and the villagers, in turn, collected bamboo poles to erect the 35 tongi ghars in their paddy fields. The high-power torchlights have been made available to these tongi ghars to guard crops at night, which will also help in checking elephant depredation.

Thanking his team members for the fruition of the initiative, Dr Pandey said they had been working in those fringe villages since the last six months. These rechargeable torchlights can illuminate a straight distance of up to two kilometres. The torches will help villagers staying overnight in the tongi ghars recharge their mobile phones.

The Corbett Foundation had also distributed solar light systems along with three bulbs to nearly 26 households. The families were also provided solar lanterns to guard their paddy crops at night. Dr Mayur Bowri, a wildlife biologist associated with the NGO, said that once a fringe village gets illuminated with solar lights, wild elephants will hesitate to visit the paddy fields adjacent to the village, thus reducing the man-elephant conflict.

Meanwhile, the villagers of the fringe villages of the Kaziranga National Park have stated that the current initiative on the part of the NGO will reduce elephant depredations in the near future.

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