Guwahati: The forest department on Monday started radio collaring to monitor the movement of a substantial herd of 80 wild elephants. This initiative aims to alert villagers about the herd’s movement across the three districts of Tamulpur, Nalbari, and Baksa, where wild elephants have claimed several lives and devastated paddy fields recently. These districts are among the worst affected by human-elephant conflict.
Among two large herds comprising over 120 elephants, 80 in one and approximately 40 in the other, the forest department on Monday fitted a radio collar on a healthy tusker from the larger herd. Radio collaring will be implemented on another female elephant of this herd shortly, as females typically remain with the herd whilst males might depart, forest officials explained. Radio collaring will be implemented in the other herd during the next phase.

Once fitted, it can last upto three and a half years. It is connected with satellite. Every hour, it will disseminate information about the location.
“Radio collaring will facilitate tracking the wild elephant herd’s movement via satellite. This substantial herd descends from Bhutan’s hills and traverses across Baksa, Udalguri, and Tamulpur. This year it ventured further to Nalbari district and after lingering there briefly, returned to Baksa district yesterday, covering seven to eight km,” Golap Bania, DFO, Baksa Forest Division, informed TOI on Monday.
Radio collaring was accomplished on Monday through the collaborative efforts of NGO Aranyak, the forest department, and the district administration of Baksa and Tamulpur. He indicated that villagers would receive advance notifications about the herd's movement. Radio collaring involves attaching a small radio transmitter and battery to the animal's neck.
Radio collaring was performed on the tusker at Jartaluk bridge side on Monday with assistance from the district administrations of Baksa and Tamulpur and the forest department. “The radio collaring aimed to mitigate human-elephant conflict and address escalating cases of human-elephant conflict,” an official stated on Monday.
Radio collaring was executed by tranquilising the tusker, approximately 30 years old and physically robust. “Subsequent radio collaring will be performed on one female elephant from the same herd shortly. Should the tusker depart, radio collaring on the female elephant will ensure continued movement tracking,” Bania elaborated.
Whiile the 80-strong herd has consumed paddy across numerous villages, with some members causing human casualties previously, the other herd remains within parts of Bhutan and the nearby Lebra proposed reserved forest in the Tamulpur administrative district in Assam.
Radio collaring equipment, sourced from South Africa, costs approximately Rs 8 lakh per elephant. “It resembles a belt around the elephant's neck,” Bania explained. Besides safeguarding human lives and agricultural produce substantially, he noted this radio collaring would prevent the dissemination of "false information" regarding elephant herd movements.
“From the landscape encompassing districts along Brahmaputra’s northern bank and contiguous forests in Bhutan, historical elephant movement spans approximately 300 km reaching north Bengal. Radio collaring will now reveal changes in elephant movement patterns influenced by emerging human settlements,” wildlife expert Bibhab Talukdar observed.