GUWAHATI: Aaranyak, a biodiversity organisation in Assam has developed a mobile application to mitigate the problem of human-elephant conflicts.The GPS feature in ‘HaatiApp’ will help wildlife conservationists get the exact location of the animal when it ventures out of a forest. This app is developed with the support of the SBI Foundation. It was launched on Sunday.Bibhuti P Lahkar, who is the head of Elephant Research and Conservation Division of Aaranyak, told TNIE, that the app was launched to save human and elephant lives.Explaining its features, he said, “If someone comes across a wild elephant at a human settlement, he or she will send an alert in a voice or text message. The person can also inform our volunteers and they will put it on the app.”“Earlier, it was very difficult to locate people the animal’s location, when a wild elephant appeared at a human settlement,” Lahkar said, adding, “We have admins in every district. We will include everyone working for the conservation of elephants and wildlife in the app.”He said that the app was launched in a testing mode for two to three months. We are likely to face certain problems. One is about connectivity. The app may also encounter technical glitches. We will popularise it once we have a fair idea about its efficacy,” Lahkar said. The app also contains the ex-gratia application form for damages caused by wild elephants. People living in remote areas usually do not apply for compensation and they do not follow it up as the process entails expenses. We will help them in filing an application and follow it up,” Lahkar said. According to the last census, Assam has 5,700 elephants, the second highest after Karnataka which has over 6,000 of them. On average, 80 people die in Assam every year in conflicts with elephants.“The elephant corridors also do not have any legal status. The climate is changing. Elephants need a lot of water and they stray out of forests for food and water. Mitigating the problem is everyone’s responsibility,” he said. Talking about solutions to solve this human-animal conflict, he said that there has to be habitat management. The corridors have to be secured. If people are living in corridors, they have to be relocated.The forest departments of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh have this app, he added.
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