Govt yet to work out action plan for elephant conservation

NEW DELHI: Elephant conservation seems to have been put on a back burner by the government as it is yet to work out an action plan with the jumbo-range states for restoration of corridors to ensure their free movement.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh had last month asked his officials to hold an urgent meeting with elephant-range states such as Kerala, Jharkhand, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Orissa and others to find ways to improve the habitat of pachyderms.

But the proposed meeting is yet to take place even as the states grapple with increasing jumbo-human conflicts in view of habitat degradation and poor coordination among the neighbouring states.

The decision to hold the meeting was taken at a national conference on forest ministers when various states pointed that man-elephant conflict was becoming a serious issue in their areas, endangering the life of jumbos as villagers were retaliating.

At the conference, state wildlife officials had accused the Centre of focusing on tiger conservation while ignoring other equally important and endangered animals like elephants.

However, Ramesh assured them that "there is no dearth of funds for the protection of wildlife including jumbos. There is a need for emphasis on the restoration of elephant corridors which have been virtually non-existent for past several years."