State to deport marauding elephants
Nagpur Ever heard of elephants being deported? It has nothing to do with the animals crossing borders without valid papers
Nagpur Ever heard of elephants being deported? It has nothing to do with the animals crossing borders without valid papers. It is about marauding pachyderms from neighbouring states being sent back for destroying agricultural crops in Maharashtra.
Replying to a question related to elephants destroying crops in farmlands in Sindhudurg and other districts, forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said in Assembly on Thursday that a special drive will be undertaken to send the animals back to their respective states.
“The elephants coming from neighbouring states have wreaked havoc in districts such as Gondia, Sindhudurg, Gadchiroli and Kolhapur. We will undertake a special drive to send these animals back to their respective states,” he said. The minister said that the affected farmers are being compensated for their losses following the attack by the elephants.
Replying to another question related to villages in ecologically sensitive area (ESA), Mungantiwar said the state government proposes the exclusion of 388 villages in Western Ghats from the zone.
The proposal will be sent to the central government for the exclusion as development in these villages has been badly affected, Mungantiwar said.
Replying to a calling attention in the Assembly, Mungantiwar said that 2,133 villages in Western Ghat were declared to be in ESA as per the Madhav Gadgil committee report submitted in 2012.
“The state government in December 2018 had proposed to exclude 388 villages and include 347 villages in the category. After the change in the government in 2019, the number of exclusion of the villages was brought to 22 and proposed to include 42 villages. We will send the revised proposal of excluding 388 villages to the central government,” he said.
While raising the issue in the lower house Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Bhaskar Jadhav said that the villages in question do not fall in ESA. He said that the villages have been deprived of development and the villagers are being denied a source of earning due to restriction of mining and other activities.
Mungantiwar said that the government will also tap the possibility of special incentives to the villages falling in the ESA.