Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh forest department signed an MoU with Karnataka on Friday for mutual cooperation and to address various challenges concerning wildlife in forest areas. One of the main aims of AP is to check the growing wild elephant menace in its districts bordering Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Orissa.
The Karnataka government agreed to provide four trained Kumki elephants to AP, which would be handed over to the state forest authorities after the Dasara festival. Coming along with them would be their mahouts. They would help the forest authorities tackle the elephant herds that stray into elephant corridors and human habitations from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
These herds have been causing widespread damage to agricultural crops and killing humans in the Chittoor region and the agency areas of Parvathipuram Manyam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts.
Principal chief conservator of forests and head of forest force of AP Chiranjiv Choudhary and Karnataka PCCF Brijesh Kumar Dixit signed and exchanged the MoU in the presence of deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan and Karnataka minister Eshwara Khandre.
The signing was done at the inter-state coordination meeting of AP and Karnataka forest departments here.
Pawan Kalyan said the MoU would provide a practical solution to the man-animal conflict and minimize crop loss and loss of human lives due to pachyderm attacks in the state.
“The key elements of the MoU include borrowing Kumki-trained elephants, mahouts, and setting up training centres for knowledge transfer on elephant conservation, health and nutrition. The aim is also to train AP mahouts and enhance their capacity building.
He said a joint task force of the two states would be set up to curb red sanders and sandalwood smuggling.
“The AP forest department would take a leaf out of the Karnataka IT department’s book and introduce technology similar to what is used there to identify encroachments within forest areas and tree-felling activities. The tracking would be done through satellite images,” PK said.
The deputy CM also said the state government would lay emphasis on developing eco-tourism projects to generate employment opportunities and open new business avenues for entrepreneurs.
Karnataka’s forest minister Eshwar Khandre said the two state governments have collectively come forward to address the pressing challenges in protecting wildlife, conserving forests and mitigating complex challenges faced by communities in man-animal conflict-prone areas.
AP wildlife chief conservator AK Nayak, Karnataka wildlife conservator Subhash Mulkee, Karnataka forest department additional chief secretary Manjunath Prasad and other forest department officials were present.
