Bhubaneswar: PCCF Wildlife Susanta Nanda is a ‘Master Of Innovation’ So in a remarkable achievement, the State Wildlife Organization has successfully conducted radio collaring of a wild elephant in Angul Forest Division on 21 February.
A male elephant with injury was found in Chhendipada Jungle (Sapiosahi) of Chhendipada Range in Angul Forest Division. It was on observation since February 14, 2024 and treated successfully by veterinarians of Satkosia Wildlife Division and of Mobile Veterinary Unit (MVU) of Angul, a senior forest official said.
On Wednesday, the elephant was tranquilized and a radio collar has been fitted to the animal before its release in the forest.
It will help track and monitor the movement of the elephant for its post-treatment observation as well as to monitor the behavior of the tusker, said the officer.
The move will also help track the elephant in areas with human-elephant conflict, so that timely action can be taken to prevent any such conflict, he said.
Further, the injured elephant, which would have been vulnerable to poaching will now be easier to track its movement to prevent any untoward event.
The trainees at Angul Rangers Collage will be exposed to the tracking for future management in the field, informed the official.
After this path breaking experiment in Angul, it is proposed to use this method in tracking problematic elephant herds at other places of Odisha by putting radio collars.
According to official sources, tagging the radio collar on the wild elephants has been a success in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and it has yielded desired results.
In order to implement this, the State had also signed an MoU with the Asian Nature Conservation Foundation and the Institute of Physics. Because of Covid, the process was delayed.
The Forest Department also plans to put up an early warning system to caution people about the movement of elephants in their areas. There will be red lights and sirens to inform people about the presence of elephants in the human habitation area, they said.