Guwahati: Members of Rapid Response Units (RRUs) located across five eastern Assam districts and West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya have been provided with field gear and first-aid kits.
The gears were provided by Aaranyak, a Guwahati-based biodiversity conservation organisation and the British Asian Trust, with support from Biodiversity Challenge Fund, UK.
The field equipment includes raincoats, caps, shoes and first-aid kits.
The field gears have been provided to enhance the efficiency of the RRUs during the rainy season in the sustained efforts for mitigation of human elephant conflicts.
“Aaranyak and the British Asian Trust in their effort to mitigate human-elephant conflict, has been working with the local community to empower them,” Alolika Sinha, a senior biologist in Aaranyak, said.
The RRUs are trained to manage human-elephant conflict-alerts and act as early warning units and have been formed as part of the effort, Sinha said.
The RRUs comprise of volunteers from villages in Assam and Meghalaya’s Garo Hills, and they act as eyes and ears in the sustained efforts for mitigation of the human-elephant conflict.
Alertness of the RRUs help to protect lives of both human beings and elephants besides livelihood of villagers as much as possible.
The RRUs are networked through close WhatApp groups, promptly propagates messages about the presence of wild elephant herds in the vicinity of any human settlement so that the villagers can take prompt prescribed action to avoid direct confrontation with the herd.
