RRUs in Assam and Meghalaya provided with field gear to scale up HEC mitigation

GUWAHATI: Altogether, 239 members of Rapid Response Units (RRUs) located across five eastern Assam districts and the West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya have been provided with field gear and first-aid kits by the premier biodiversity conservation organisation of the region, Aaranyak, and the British Asian Trust, with support from the Biodiversity Challenge Fund, UK. The field equipment, including raincoats, caps, shoes, and first-aid kits, has been provided to enhance the efficiency of the RRUs during the rainy season in the sustained efforts for the mitigation of human elephant conflicts (HEC) in the respective areas assigned to them.

“Aaranyak and the British Asian Trust, in their effort to mitigate HEC, have been working with the local community to empower them. The RRUs are trained to manage HEC-alerts, act as early warning units, and have been formed as part of the effort,” said Dr. Alolika Sinha, a senior biologist in Aaranyak.

RRUs comprising volunteers from HEC-affected villages in Assam and Meghalaya’s Garo Hills Region act as eyes and ears in the sustained efforts for mitigation of the HEC so as to protect the lives of both human beings and elephants, as well as the livelihoods of villagers, as much as possible.

Each of these RRUs, 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. The Aaranyak team organised an outreach event in HEC-affected Borogobal village in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya recently (June 23) on mitigation efforts and provided raincoats and first-aid kits to 13 RRU members who attended the event at the Borogobol Village Community Centre.

An RRU member of the village Norway Marak has said that being trained to work for HEC mitigation by being a member of the RRU has been of immense help to serve the affected villagers. “We now know that the best way to protect the lives and property in our Borogobal village from the hearing of wild elephants is to clear the path of elephants to facilitate their movement freely instead of trying to scare them away by bursting fire crackers or lighting fire as villagers used to do earlier, and that enraged the elephants,” he said.

Altogether, 219 RRU members from six RRU units spread across five districts—Sivasagar, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, and Majuli—of eastern Assam were provided with field equipment and first-aid kits during June 13–26, following consultation workshops with them. Jorhat district has two RRUs, while the rest four districts have one each. There are an average of 50 members in each of these RRUs.

Aaranyak’s team working in the landscape actively participated to facilitate the consultation events, along with support from an active volunteer, Rakib Ali, and Aaranyak’s village champions, a press release said.

Also Read: Rapid Response Unit (RRU) members trained on Human-Elephant Conflict mitigation in eastern Assam districts (sentinelassam.com)

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