58-member Task Force comprises officers, field staff, tribal community members

Mysore/Mysuru: The Leopard Task Force with a strong team of 58 members that has been set up to address problems related to leopard sightings will start its operations next week. 

“The process of drawing team members from the existing divisions and offices of the Forest Department and the actual operation will start next week,” said Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) Mysuru Circle Dr. K.N. Basavaraju.

 Speaking to reporters at Aranya Bhavan here yesterday after a power-point presentation about human-animal conflict,  the measures taken by the Forest Department to minimise the conflict and the efforts to remove misconceptions among the people, the DCF said that the Task Force had been formed by the State Government as the leopard menace in T. Narasipur has increased.

 “There have been loss of lives and the Task Force will adopt a coordinated strategy to reduce or eliminate human-animal conflict. The Leopard Task Force has been formed on the lines of the Elephant Task Force following back-to-back incidents of four human deaths within a span of three months,” he explained.

 Tribals roped in

“The process of hiring outsourced employees for the Task Force, most of them with tribal backgrounds, is nearing completion and deployment will be done in the Mysuru Forest Circle comprising the districts of Mysuru and Mandya,” he added.

Basavaraju will be the Head of the Leopard Task Force and the team will comprise one ACF, one RFO, 4 DRFOs, 8 forest guards, 40 assistants from the tribal communities — who have innate knowledge about the terrain and animal behaviour — in combing and other operations and five drivers.

The Department is in the process of mapping the hotspots where human-leopard conflicts are high in Mysuru and surrounding regions and at present, 28 villages coming under T. Narasipur taluk have been mapped as hotspots based on the frequency of leopard encounters and livestock kills.

 e-Parihara portal

“We have launched a portal called e-Parihara that is a mobile app and simultaneously a web application. The android app facilitates the inspecting officer to record details of the man-animal conflict incident along with geo stamps and photographs of the damage caused due to conflict. The inspection report is sent for processing of claims through a workflow in the web interface. The details to be entered into the app include geo-coordinates of each encounter. This data is being used to map high conflict areas and will help in scientific deployment of the Task Force,” Basavaraju explained.

“While one team will be deployed in T. Narasipur where four persons including two women, one child and a youth lost their lives following the leopard attack,  another team will be in K.R. Pet taluk. Two will be stationed at Mysuru headquarters and another in Mandya. These teams will reach the spot soon after obtaining information and will take necessary measures to alleviate the situation,” Basavaraju added.