Indian mobile app to reduce clashes between humans and elephants
A conservation group in India has developed a mobile app to help people in Assam state get out of the way of elephants and reduce elephant deaths on illegal electric fences.
In addition to facilitating alerts about wild elephants coming through an area, the HaathiApp, developed by conservation charity Aranyak in Assam, can also assist villagers claim state compensation following attacks.
Elephants have killed 56 people in Assam since 2014, 22 of them this year alone.
“We feel there is a mechanism required where poor villagers can apply for compensation and that is one of the main components of HaatiApp,” Aranyak’s chief elephant researcher Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar told RFI.
Haathi is the Hindi word for elephant, which is revered in India, but the animals can cause extensive damage and can be dangerous to humans.
The app can serve as an early warning system.
“Suppose one sees an elephant, he or she can then immediately alert other villagers in the area via the app,” Lahkar said, days after elephants killed two foresters and a civilian in the Assam's Sonitpur district.
Assam, which borders Bangladesh and Myanmar, is home to 5,700 elephants, the second highest population in India, after southern Karnataka state, according to a 2017 national census.
Deadly fencings
The charity hopes the early warning system and compensation can stop elephant deaths, which are often due to electrocution, in retaliation for attacks.
“People electrocute elephants in retaliation and so if we can facilitate early compensation then that will reduce electrocutions,” Lahkar said, adding that Aranyak was also trying to replace illegal palisades with safe fencing.
Read more on RFI English
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