Kathmandu, November 1
Radio collars will be fitted on wild elephants that have been entering settlements in the buffer zone of Shuklaphanta National Park in Kanchanpur for years, damaging crops and property and threatening human lives.
The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation has instructed the Shuklaphanta National Park Office to proceed with the radio collar installation.
The department has requested the installation of radio collars to collect information on the movement of wild elephants and help reduce human-wildlife conflict.
The department aims to regularly monitor and analyse data obtained from the radio collars to track elephant movements and predict potential risks of elephants entering settlements.
Minister for Agriculture, Forests and Environment Geeta Chaudhary said regular monitoring and analysis of radio collar data would help track elephant movements and anticipate the possibility of their entering settlements.
She said this would help alert local communities in time and minimise loss of human lives, crops and physical property.
Minister Chaudhary said the radio collars would be fitted in coordination with a technical team, including veterinarians, under the direct supervision of the park’s senior conservation officer.
She said the safety of the elephants would be given priority, with the collars fitted using scientific methods and regular monitoring carried out afterwards.
