Odisha's first elephant radio-collared in Angul Forest division

   
In a first in Odisha, the Angul Forest Division radio-collared an injured elephant on Wednesday. It will help forest officials track the injured animal and monitor its movement for post-treatment, observation and to prevent its poaching.
Besides, the radio collar will monitor the behaviour of the tusker.

As per reports, the injured elephant was spotted in the Chhendipada jungle (Sapiosahi) under the Angul Forest Division on February 14.  It was under constant observation of forest officials after being treated successfully by veterinarians of Satkosia Wildlife Division and the Mobile Veterinary Unit (MVU) of Angul. 

On Wednesday, the injured animal was tranquilized. A radio collar was fitted to the animal before it was released into the forest. 

The radio collar will come in handy for monitoring the movement of the elephant for post-treatment observation as well as tracking it in the areas where the human-elephant conflict is raging. It was stated that the radio collar would help the forest department in taking timely action to ward off such conflict. 

Speaking to OTV, PPCF (Wildlife) Susanta Nanda said that the radio-collaring was first done in Angul. “We will get information about the injured elephant with a radio collar through satellites. Our field staff can track it properly.  Besides, the trainees at Angul Rangers’ College can get training on it. In the later stage, we have a plan to expand collaring of the elephants in problematic areas,” the PCCF said.