Andhra will have to wait to relocate elephants in Orissa
Berhampur (PTI): Andhra Pradesh may have to wait for a few more days before taking any steps for driving away a herd of wild elephants back to their natural habitat at Lakhary Valley elephant reserve in Orissa.
This was recommended by a high-level expert committee, constituted by the central government to resolve the row between the two neighbouring states over translocation of the pachyderms which had strayed into Andhra Pradesh from Orissa, official sources said today.
'We have recommended waiting for about a fortnight before taking up any operation to translocate the elephant herd from Andhra Pradesh back to Orissa,' said S S Srivastav, Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), who represented Orissa in the expert committee.
'We hope the elephants will move towards their original habitat after the harvest of paddy is over in about 15 days', Srivastav said adding the Orissa government had made a similar request to Andhra Pradesh asking it to stop the operation launched by it to drive back the elephants.
The three-member committee headed by M K Appaiah, retired principal chief conservator of forest of Karnataka and steering committee member in centre's elephant project, met recently at Vijayanagarm to assess the elephant menace. The other member of the commitee was Hitesh Malhotra, principal chief conservator of forest of Andhra Pradesh.
The panel has advised Andhra Pradesh to engage elephants to drive back the hert if its members still remian in their territory after 15 days.
Regional
