MP, CG to Prepare Joint Action Plan to Tackle Elephant Menace: Mohan

Bhopal: Chief minister Mohan Yadav on Monday said that Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh would prepare a joint action plan to tackle elephant menace in the two states.

Mr Yadav indicated that he would discuss the issue with his Chhattisgarh counterpart Vishnu Deo Sai during his one-day visit to the neighbouring state on Monday.

The chief minister has left for Raipur in the afternoon to attend the inaugural function of the three-day ‘Rajyotsava’, scheduled to be kicked off on Monday evening, to mark the 25th Chhattisgarh State Foundation Day.

Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh on November 1, 2000.

The state government is organizing the three-day grand event, commencing on Monday, to mark the occasion.

Mr Yadav said that several herds of elephants have migrated to Madhya Pradesh from Chhattisgarh in the recent past and some of them have settled down in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR), falling in the districts of Umaria and Katni in Madhya Pradesh, in 2018 after finding the jungles suitable habitat for them.

The herds are the first resident pachyderms of Madhya Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh need to deal with the issue jointly, he said.

The chief minister's initiative comes in the wake of deaths of ten elephants in the BTR in Madhya Pradesh over 72 hours in the last week of October.

It is a new experience for the state forest department to handle the elephant issue, he said and added that the state government is preparing a long-term plan to ensure that wild elephants become the part of Madhya Pradesh jungles and there should be peaceful cohabitation between the pachyderms and the local villagers.

The state would study the best practices of other states in dealing with elephant menace and implement them in Madhya Pradesh.