Selfie obsession: Awareness to prevent humans trespass into animal territory

Bhubaneswar: With instances of deaths while taking selfie with elephants on the rise in Odisha, the forest department has now decided to intensify awareness campaigns to prevent such casualties.

Official sources said, workshops and other programmes will be initiated  in nearly 90 percent of regions that have frequent movement of elephants particularly in Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Athagarh from February this year.

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"Workshops will be organised to sensitize people on what to do and how to react whenever elephants raid a particular area so that loss of life and property can be minimized," said Sandip Tripathy, PCCF (Chief Wildlife Warden).

As per reports, nearly 85 people were killed while taking selfies and in other elephant attacks in several parts of Odisha in 2016-17.

Earlier, a youth was trampled by a pachyderm at Mandiakudar under Rajgangpur police limits while posing for a selfie in September last year. A compensation of nearly Rs 15 crore has been provided towards damage caused by elephant herd in several parts of State in the past one year.