Buxa to form squads to fight jumbo attack

TT, Alipurduar: The Bengal forest department has decided to form four "wildlife depredation squads" in the Buxa Tiger Reserve to curb incidents of elephant attacks in human habitats on the fringes of the forest.

The decision, sources said, was taken at the annual meeting of Buxa Tiger Conservation Foundation Trust held at Bana Bhavan in Calcutta on Wednesday.

Foresters said the number of elephant depredations were on the rise. "On a regular basis, herds of wild elephants sneak into villages which are close to the reserve. They damage crops and houses and injure people, and sometimes there are human losses also. However, the number of staff in the BTR is not adequate to keep a round-the-clock vigil on the reserve that is spread "Hence, we decided to include villagers in the wildlife depredation squads, along with our staff. They would be provided with necessary training." Sources said in each of the four squads, there would be one or two armed forest guard and around five villagers, who would be engaged on a contractual basis.

"Each squad will have a designed vehicle. Two of these squads would be posted in the east division of the BTR, while the other two in the west division. As there will be four such teams, it would help us intervene early and check elephant attacks," an officer said.

The squads will also be provided with crackers and search lights. "These squads will be active round the clock and particularly at night when elephants usually enter villages. Also, a specially-designed vehicle to handle such a situation will be in the BTR and will move out in case the squads need help," said Subhankar Sengupta, the field director of the BTR.