The towers are equipped with solar-powered mobile charger, and financial assistance of Rs 17,300 is given to farmers for the foundation work for the machadas, officials said.
The scheme aims to protect people from being attacked by lions and the farmers can seek refuge on these machadas, where they can rest or even sleep to escape attacks from wild animals.
“Issues for conservation are changing, the lion is regaining its territory and moving out of the core area, hence it is important for the forest department to gear up for the new challenges, not just for lion but all species,” said D K Sharma, principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and head of forest force (HoFF), Gujarat.
He was speaking at a session on the conservation efforts by Gujarat forest department at the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS-COP13) held in Gandhinagar recently.
There are 523 lions in a 22,000 sq km area across eight districts of Gujarat, including the Gir sanctuary, according to the census carried out in 2015. Asiatic lions in Gujarat have seen a considerable rise in their numbers due to key management practices such as habitat management, wildlife monitoring, mitigating human-wildlife conflict, rescue operations, wildlife crime control, eco-tourism, people’s participation, awareness programs and research and training, he said.
Mohan Ram, deputy conservator of forests, Sasan, ascribed significance to research and training as they are the basis of all other practices. The Gir National Park area has camera traps for monitoring, radio-collaring of lions (world’s largest project), GPS monitoring, a wireless communication system, foot patrols and state of the art facilities with the wildlife rescue service.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/machadas-to-help-check-man-beast-conflict/articleshow/74308869.cms
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