Forest officials meet to strengthen networking

BARIPADA: An inter-state coordination meeting of forest officials from Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand was held here on Monday.Baripada DFO Santosh Joshi said coordination among officials of the three states and strengthening of network to share information on movement of elephants were discussed in the meeting. This apart, discussions on measures to prevent death of elephants was also deliberated upon.

Poor coordination among the officials concerned of the states has been leading to deaths of wild animals including elephants, Joshi said, adding, it was decided to collect mobile phone numbers of officials and share those among field functionaries to address any eventuality effectively. 

The frequency of elephants entering Mayurbhanj and Balasore districts from Jharkhand has gone up in the last over 10 years. The elephants from the neighbouring state often cause damage to property and human lives. In such scenario, sharing of information between the two states has become vital.

Apart from Joshi, regional chief conservator of forests and field director of Similipal Tiger Reserve T Ashok Kumar, Karanjia DFO Srikant Naik, chief conservator of forests and DFOs of West Bengal and Jharkhand attended the meeting.