Wolf terror: CM Yogi chairs high level meeting with top officials
Lucknow| Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a high-level meeting on Monday, taking cognizance of the incidents of human-wildlife conflict that have taken place in various districts of the state in recent times. In the meeting, he instructed the departmental ministers and officials of the concerned departments to prevent incidents of human-wildlife conflict, monitor them and brainstorm on the reasons for the increase in incidents so that these can be curbed. After the instructions of CM Yogi, many District Magistrates became active regarding the incidents of human-wildlife conflict and immediately formed teams and gave instructions to comb and spread public awareness in every village.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said in the meeting that for the last few days, information about attacks by wolves or leopards has been coming from various districts of the state. He gave instructions to control these incidents, catch wildlife and take necessary steps as per requirement. He also ordered to create widespread public awareness by the administration, police, forest department, local panchayat, revenue department in the affected districts and to inform the people about security measures. After the meeting, the Forest Minister and concerned officials came into action.
The Forest Minister gave instructions to immediately deploy additional employees of the Forest Department in Bahraich, Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Pilibhit, Bijnor and other districts. Also ordered to increase joint patrolling. Apart from this, senior officials were ordered to organize camps in the districts, take cooperation from public representatives and make arrangements for Petromax in rural areas where there is light problem. Uttar Pradesh is the first state which has declared human-wildlife conflict as a disaster. Through this, all possible assistance is being provided to the families of those injured in wild animal attacks or those who died untimely.
Bahraich District Magistrate Monica Rani, Sitapur District Magistrate Abhishek Anand and Lakhimpur Kheri District Magistrate Durga Shakti Nagpal, affected by human-wildlife conflict, issued unnecessary guidelines to the police, forest department, local panchayat and revenue department in their respective districts. In this, along with patrolling in forest areas at the range level, teams of forest personnel should patrol daily as per the action plan for patrolling in rural areas adjacent to the forest, information about this should be mentioned on the register. Meetings should be organized to prevent human-wildlife conflict in villages adjacent to reserved forest areas and villagers should be made aware to take precautions against wild animals. It should be explained to the villagers that they should go to their fields in groups to do agricultural work, so that the wild animals get out of the way.
Wide publicity should be given regarding human and wildlife in sensitive areas. Hoardings related to taking precautions against wildlife should be put up in public places (temples, gurudwaras, mosques, schools, local markets, sugarcane purchasing centres, block development offices, tehsils). Posters should be pasted for publicity on roadside and public places in wildlife affected areas. Also, pamphlets should be distributed among the villagers for vigilance. Incidentally, if any incident of human-wildlife conflict occurs in any area, then the local staff and range staff should immediately conduct rescue and inform the higher officials. Resources available at the range level should be used during patrolling in wildlife affected areas. Apart from this, cooperation should be taken from local self-help groups, intellectual cadre, village heads and people sensitive towards wild animals. Patrolling and anti-snare rest should be done continuously by the local staff on the rural borders and trails adjacent to the reserved forest area. Local forest personnel should maintain mobile contact with the village heads of the villages bordering the forest.
