Assam Minister Nandita Gorlasa launched a Mobile app called Haati and a Solar fence Manual to Mitigate the harmness caused Human – Elephant Conflicts at Guwahati on Saturday night.
HaatiApp
Aranyak a biodiversity Conversation group from Northeast has developed a mobile application to reduce the deaths / injuries caused due to the Conflicts between Human and Elephant in Assam and Neighboring states
The Early Warning System feature present in the Mobile app can give warnings in case of any wild Elephants approaching Human Settlements which will help to neglect death / injuries to both Elephants and Humans.
Reason behind Haatiapp :
According to the statistics provided by the Assam Government , Last year more than 70 humans and 80 elephants died due to the Human – Elephant Conflict ( HEC ) . The MInister said that these both tools would help for the pleasant coexistence of both human and elephant .
Assam ranks second in India for having Highest Elephant population with a count of over 5700 after Karnataka which has 6049. The Deforestation in the name of Development has served as the main reason for the HEC in the States facing deaths .
According to the State Government of Assam nearly 1330 Elephants were died between 2001 and 2022 of which only 509 died due to Natural Causes remaining were killed because of Poaching , Electrocution and Poisoned. In the same way, fatalities of humans were also increased ,where 75 humans died in 2019 -20; 91 in 2020-2021 ; 91 in 2021-2022 ; 63 in 2022-2023 and 74 in this current fiscal year .
The HEC is high in Chirang , Baksa , Golaghat , Sonitpur . The Government has paid so far more than 9 crores as Compensation to those affected in HEC.
Founder of the initiation :
Dr . Bibhab Kumar Talukdar , head of the Elephant Research and Conservation Division ( ERCD ) initiated the need for developing such a application to prevent both human and elephant from being injured .
