The misery of elephants in Maharashtra may soon end as the state forest ministry has decided to set up a village exclusively for elephants.
An exclusive reserve for elephants will be promoted as an eco-tourism attractionThe misery of elephants in Maharashtra may soon end as the state forest ministry has decided to set up a village exclusively for elephants and use this village as an eco-tourism attraction.
The ambitious project will be first of its kind in the world. The state forest ministry is expected to soon enter into a memorandum of understanding with Earth Matters Foundations in this regard.
The elephant village will most likely be developed at Tilhari Dam in Sindhudurg district. Pachpute said, “It is the ideal location as all the four villages in the area have already been relocated and there is ample food and water for elephants.”
State forest minister Babanrao Pachpute said, “The formalities have completed regarding the elephant village and the proposal has been sent to the Centre for approval.” The forest ministry has identified at least four sites out of which one will finally be selected for setting up the village for elephants. The village can also be converted into an eco-tourism attraction.
Pachpute said four sites have been identified for the project - 103-HA near Ahmednagar, 80-hectare near Pune, 50-hectare near Nashik and 30-hectare at Tilhari Dam in Savantvadi district. The viability of an eco-tourism spot at elephant village will also be explored, he said.
Environmentalist Mike Pandey of Earth Matters Foundation who has been instrumental in formulating the project said, “The sole objective of the exercise is to restore elephant habitat to prevent man-animal conflict in Maharashtra. We intend to rehabilitate even domesticated elephants in wild.”
The blueprint of the project was recently sent to the state forest ministry. The senior forest officials after reviewing the blueprint forwarded it to the union ministry of forest and environment and Project Elephant for approval.
Senior MoEF officials held a meeting with Mike Pandey at New Delhi on Wednesday. Pandey said, “We have suggested measures to protect the animals and rehabilitate them back in the wild. We are not in favour of keeping elephants in captivity.”
Pandey said rampant poaching by notorious poacher Virappan has drastically disturbed male-female ratio.
“The ideal male-female ratio should be 1:5. But due to rampant poaching of male elephants for their tusks, the ratio has skewed to 1:600. This has also created a genetic imbalance posing threat to survival of the animal,” Pandey said.
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