Chhattisgarh: Braving risks, officials face challenges to conduct polls in elephant dominated areas

Jashpur (Chattisgarh) [India], April 12 : District administration and forest officials in Chattisgarh's Jashpur are working to tackle the challenges they were facing in ensuring increased voter turnout in elephant-dominated areas, fearing elephant attacks and difficult forest terrain.
Administration and forest officials are jointly working to encourage increased voter turnout.
Speaking on the same, Jashpur Collector Ravi Mittal said, "The administration and the forest department are working together on our elephant-affected booths. People are being motivated there to vote as much as possible. Elephants are also being monitored and people are being assured that they can vote comfortably."

Further detailing the steps and strategy to ensure polling in the 70 to 80 villages affected by human-elephant conflict, the District Forest official Jitendra Kumar Upadhyay said, "The Forest Department has access to the interior areas of the forest, hence, the Forest Department is always involved in public awareness. Besides, this is an elephant-roaming area. Today, 70 to 80 villages are affected. Our strategy is the same as it was during the assembly elections. The police and forest department are deployed two days in advance within a radius of 4km of the booths, the location of the elephant is given to the DFO and he further shares it with the SP and other security personnel and we monitor it."
"The last time we did this, we had complete success. This time too, our intention is to mark the villages where there are elephants in the forest and keep them within a radius of 4-5 km of the booth. At the same time, we take their location to see what the chances are of the elephant coming to the village. A day before, if there is a possibility of the elephant coming to the village, then the friendly team and the forest department together keep the elephant towards the forest," added the forest official.

Another forest official revealed the pattern of elephant movement in the jungle and how 'Hathi Mitra Dal' keeps track of it and keeps villagers informed about that.
"There is movement of elephants in the Kunkuri area throughout the year, hence our team conducts continuous search operations in the morning and evening. Our employees go to elephant-affected areas and advise the villagers to stay away from elephants. Right now Mahua season is going on, the villagers wake up in the morning and go to collect wood and they do not know where they might come in contact with elephants," said Forest Range Officer Kunkuri S. K. Hota.
"Given this, the support of our forest department team and Hathi Mitra Dal which has been formed in all the villages to keep an eye on the elephants. Lok Sabha elections are to be held here in the coming time and Assembly elections have also taken place, keeping in view that the Forest Division officials are serious about ensuring that elephants do not cause any loss of life. We are following this instruction. While doing it, we understand people," he added.
Elections to the 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh will be held in three phases on April 19, and May 7, and votes will be counted on June 4.