Jagran correspondent, Jamshedpur. The menace of elephants in the forests of West Singhbhum has now crossed the limits of tolerance. On Tuesday, a wild elephant crushed three people of the same family to death in Goilkera. With this heart-wrenching incident, so far nine people have lost their lives in different villages of Saranda, Podahat and Kolhan forest divisions in the last one week.
Seeing the gravity of the situation, the Forest Department has now sought help from Reliance's Vantara, the country's most prestigious wildlife rescue center. Taking a strict stance, Head of Forest Department (PCCF Half) Sanjeev Kumar has directed the officers to camp in Chaibasa with immediate effect and go among the victims.
Our rescue center will open in Chaibasa
Work has also started on permanent solutions to deal with such incidents in future. RCCF Smita Pankaj said that on the guidance of PCCF Sanjeev Kumar, there is a plan to open a rescue center for elephants in Chaibasa. Funds will be released for this soon.
After the construction of this centre, treatment of injured elephants and rescue of aggressive elephants will be possible at the local level only. On Tuesday, senior officials of the Forest Department visited the incident site and held a meeting with the villagers and assured them of taking all possible safety measures.
Vantara's team is coming from Jamnagar
In view of the increasing attacks by elephants, the Forest Department has contacted Reliance Industries' project "Vantara" located in Jamnagar, Gujarat. RCCF Smita Pankaj informed that two teams of experts have been called from Vantara. This team is equipped with state-of-the-art resources and technologies.
He told that Vantara's team will rescue the elephant safely. After the rescue operation is completed and the elephant is controlled, a plan has been made to send it to Odisha, so that the threat from the local residential areas can be completely averted.
What is Anant Ambani's Vantara Project?
The Vantara team called by the forest department is an ambitious initiative of Reliance Industries and Reliance Foundation, started by Mukesh Ambani's son Anant Ambani. “Vantara” means “forest star”. Spread over 3000 acres in Jamnagar, Gujarat, it is considered to be the world's largest animal rescue and rehabilitation center.
It has world class facilities like a special hospital for elephants, Jacuzzi and hydrotherapy. This institute is famous for rescuing injured and conflict-trapped animals from across the country and giving them a new life. Now this expertise will be used to control man-eating elephants in West Singhbhum.
Officers should leave the AC room and go among the public
After the Goilkera incident, PCCF Sanjeev Kumar has organized a class for top officials of the department. He strictly instructed RCCF Smita Pankaj and CF Saba Alam Ansari to camp in Chaibasa.
The PCCF on Tuesday gave a clear order that the officers should come out of the air-conditioned offices and go to the field, meet the families of the victims and establish an immediate solution to the problem by communicating with the general public. Apart from this, a letter has also been written to PCCF Wildlife and an order has been issued to form a special team.