Assam, Meghalaya villagers to get early warning through HaatiApp to check human-elephant conflicts

Guwahati: Villagers living in some of the hotspots of human-elephant conflicts in at least nine districts in Assam and neighbouring Meghalaya will soon get early warning about movement of wild elephants through a mobile application to avoid conflicts.

Aaranyak, a biodiversity conservation group in Assam, on Saturday launched a mobile application named HaatiApp that seeks to help the volunteers engaged in the districts to share real time information to villagers in order to avoid conflicts.

"The app will act as an early warning system to alert vulnerable populations about presence of wild elephants in their proximity so as to help the villagers avoid negative interface with the wild elephants. The app will also have the ex-gratia application forms against damages caused due to depredition by wild elephants," Aaranyak's senior conservation scientist and the head of elephant research and conservation division, Bibhuti P. Lahkar said.

"The ex-gratia forms filled up by the affected people will be shared by our team with the state forest department for quick disbursal of the payments," he said.

Aranyak has provided training to a large number of volunteers called Rapid Response Units and Elephant Conservation Network in Goalpara, Udalguri, Baksa, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat and Majuli districts in Assam and in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya. The app will be initially used by volunteers in Goalpara and will gradually be rolled out in the remaining districts. "The districts were selected based on vulnerability mapping and frequent incidents of human-elephant conflicts," Aaranyak said. The app project is funded by SBI Foundation.

Aaranyak also released a manual for making solar fences in order to check elephant depredation in the villages. Assam power and sports minister Nandita Gorlosa released the mobile app and the manual in Guwahati on Saturday evening. The solar fence manual was sponsored by the British Asian Trust and Darwin Initiative.

Several experts, who attended the function, urged Gorlosa to take steps to check frequent deaths of wild elephants due electrocution. The minister said villagers often resort to illegal means of electrocution out of fear of attack by wild elephants. She, however, assured that the power department would initiate steps to spread awareness among people living in the human-elephant affected areas against use of electric power.

Assam has over 5,700 wild elephants, second highest after Karnataka. Human elephant conflict, however, has turned serious with an average 70 elephants and 80 human deaths being reported every year.