A joint initiative of Nagaon and Dhemaji Forest Divisons, mobile application Airawat will help in fighting the elephant menace in Assam. Airawat will be a location-based app that will help the responders to react in a prompt and effective manner. The app will be released soon.
Everyone from ground-level staff, people from the community, railway, circle office will be given log-in ID’s. The location of all parties will be visible in the app.
When there is a sighting of a herd, an alert can be sent through the app. The app will then provide the location of the herd. Currently the response time and reaction is not up to the mark.
Airawat will help the Forest Department to know the direction of the movement of elephant herds as their location will be continuously reported. Until the mission to drive the elephants back to a forest area is completed, all parties will remain active.
Power department officials will also be involved, so that electricity can be shut down on the routes the elephants are moving, to avoid electrocution.
In the next phase, the forest department plans to introduce the system of processing the ex gratia and compensation through Airawat. Pictures of the damage can be uploaded and there will be a form to apply for compensation.
The entire system from the approval from the circle office to that of the conservators office will be made paperless. A hard copy will be used only in the final stage when the proposal for sanction of the money is sent to the government. This will make the process transparent and officials will be answerable for any delay on their part.