JAMMU: Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment, Choudhary Lal Singh has directed the authorities of Wildlife Department to take concrete measures for containing man-animal conflicts to save precious human lives. The Minister passed these directions while interacting with the officers of Wild Life Department after inspecting Wild Life Sanctuary at Jasrota in Kathua.
Chief Wild Life Warden Suresh Chugh, Chief Conservator Wild Life A K Gupta, Director Forest Protection Force R.K.Tawari, Joint Director Social Forestry Roop Avtar Kour, Joint Director, Soil Conservation R.C Gupta and Divisional Forest Officer Wildlife Warden Kathua Priyanka Sareen besides other senior officers of Wild Life Department also accompanied the Minister.
Stressing on the need to generate mass awareness regarding various aspects of man-animal conflicts Mr. Lal Singh directed the concerned authorities to devise a plan for sensitizing the people about the different methodologies of animal attacks, besides suggesting protective measures for saving their lives. The minister also said that such awareness campaigns should particularly be carried out in those areas where such incidents of animal attacks happen frequently. Unless the people are not sensitized, the graph of man-animal conflict cannot be reduced, added the minister.
Earlier, the Minister also attended the valedictory function of the workshop organized by the department of Wildlife Protection on Human Wildlife Conflict Mitigation at Jasrota Training Centre in collaboration with the Wildlife Trust of India. During the workshop two batches of Forest Officers from Territorial Forests, Forest Protection Force and Wildlife Protection were imparted information and technical skills regarding mobile control, Rescue of conflict animals and chemical immobilization.