A meeting of heads of departments, District Collectors, Divisional Forest Officers and senior Forest officials was chaired by Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan on Wednesday with a view to addressing the plethora of issues leading to incidents of human-wildlife conflict in the State. 

The three-hour meeting discussed region-specific issues raised by District Collectors and recognised the need for a concerted effort on the part of various departments to strike a balance between the safety of the people and effective management of wildlife.

District Collectors of high-range districts raised the issue of thick undergrowth in plantations facilitating animal movement in these areas. Plantation owners would have to clear this to restrict wildlife from entering inhabited areas. Clearing thickets and wild growth in villages would be the responsibility of panchayats.

Chief Wildlife Warden Pramod G. Krishnan indicated potential solutions to tackling the conflict in the 30 hotspots. There was a call to strengthen the 28 rapid response teams (RRTs), arming them with state-of-the-art tools to effectively intervene. A proposal was made to fill the vacant posts in RRTs with grade promotions. The veterinary wing of the Forest department would also be strengthened.

According to an official, the meeting also urged the Local Self-Government department to ensure effective waste management in forest-fringed areas to ward off elephants straying in looking for food. The Agriculture department should encourage farmers on forest fringes to adopt forest-friendly farming practices that would not draw animals into the fields.

Since snakebites account for 75% of fatalities in human-animal conflicts, availability of anti-venom should be ensured in incident-prone areas. In the Aralam farm issue, Tribal Rehabilitation Development Mission (TRDM) was urged to clear thickets and expedite the construction of the elephant-proof wall. The Forest department was asked to accelerate ecorestoration measures to restore elephant habitats.

The meeting also discussed evolving a mechanism for a periodic meeting of District Collectors with DFOs to review the situation on the ground.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will chair a high-level meeting to draw up urgent plans to mitigate the conflict. In addition to top officials and the member secretary of the State Disaster Management Authority, Ministers in charge of Forests, Finance, Local Self-government, Electricity, Revenue, Health and Irrigation will take part in the meeting.