Namrup, the small town situated close to the foothills of the great Patkai mountain range in the extreme southeastern part of Assam has been facing man-elephant conflict which has reached an alarming proportion during the last three years.
Wild elephants coming down from the Patkai mountain range and destroying houses of villagers, crushing people to death, damaging crops and properties of human beings in rural areas have become a common occurrence.
To mitigate the ever-increasing menace of man-elephant conflict in the region the Namrup Forest Beat Office and Namrup unit of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) jointly organized a plantation drive on Sunday in border areas of Patkai Hill in collaboration with local people of the area to reduce this conflict and to manage the scarcity of food problem in the forest.
“It is for the first time in Namrup where Namrup Forest Office and Namrup AASU started to plant around 5000 saplings of banana trees which will be planted every Sunday continuously till the month of August,” informed Namrup Forest Beat Office Officials and Namrup AASU leaders .
The move has been appreciated by the locals who have come in large numbers to join the plantation drive.
In this plantation programme, representatives of Brihotor Asomiya Yuba Mancha Namrup Anchalik , Panichukia Bongaon and Chaikya Gaon were also present.
More than 100 people thronged the Sunday’s plantation programme.