Assam government has decided to strengthen an ecosystem to create more food for animals for the protection of wildlife.
The decision was taken during a meeting of the governing body of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
The meeting was held at the Assam Administrative Staff College in Guwahati.
The decision was taken with a view to mitigate man-animal conflicts which have been on the rise now to meet the targeted requirements of the wild-lives and help them not to venture out of their habitats.
Chief minister Sonowal asked the forest department to prepare a roadmap for the programme and implement it at the earliest to aid to the conservation, protection and management of wild-lives and their habitats.
Under the programme the forest department would identity animal habitats especially elephant concentrated areas and the areas infamous for man-animal conflicts and execute the programme on a priority basis.
The activity will be carried out within and outside the protected areas and create more food in terms of raising more trees for the herbivores.
The chief minister also asked for creating more water bodies for the elephants.
Chief minister Sonowal while taking stock of the works undertaken by CAMPA, asked the functionaries to be rigorous in their approach in compensatory afforestation, conservation, protection, regeneration and management of existing natural forests.
He also asked CAMPA functionary to expedite the work of setting up of Assam Institute of Wildlife and prepare a DPR.
To give CAMPA a concrete shape, the meeting also deliberated on setting up a CAMPA campus and agreed on identifying a location for the same.
Environment and forest minister Parimal Suklabaidya and other top-level forest officials were present in the meeting.
