Guwahati: A tusker from a herd of around 50 elephants was radio-collared in Baksa district of Assam on Monday as part of an ambitious initiative led by the state forest department with active support from the district administration and police.
The elephant was tranquilised in the district’s Jartaluk area by a team of expert veterinarians, with assistance from forest officials and biologists, and was later reunited with its herd.
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The operation, supported by SBI Foundation and Prof Curtis Griffin of University of Massachusetts, was facilitated by Aaranyak – a premier biodiversity conservation organisation of the Northeast.
Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Assam State Zoo, Ashwini Kumar, said he led a team of veterinarians from the zoo who provided the necessary veterinary support to capture and collar the elephant.
“We have supported the team with required medicines, tranquilising guns and related items to make the radio collaring successful which will help in tracking the elephant movement to better manage human-elephant conflict in the region,” he added.
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Kaushik Barua, who played a leading role in the entire operation, said the primary objective of radio-collaring wild elephants is to determine their occupancy within a specific area or range.
“This helps us to work for better management of human-elephant conflict and facilitate elephant conservation,” he added.
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The GPS-based satellite-radio telemetry collar fitted to the pachyderm will help assess the migratory patterns, vegetative preferences of the wild elephant and its herd.
The locations provided by the collar will also serve as an early alert system, aiding in the better management of human-elephant conflicts in the landscape.
Senior conservation scientist with Aaranyak and head of the Elephant Research and Conservation Division (ERCD) of the organisation, Dr Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar, said the radio-collaring of wild elephants will help in understanding their ecology, habitat utilisation patterns, movements and occupancy in a more scientific manner.
“This will aid in developing better elephant conservation strategies for the landscape. A team of Aaranyak biologists has been monitoring the elephant for the past two months to ensure the success of the radio collaring,” he added.