Agartala, June 16 (UNI) Tripura’s Wildlife Authority is set to launch an elephant safari in a 1.5-kilometer stretch in the forest under Mungiakami in Khowai district.

The trained tuskers of the Mungiakami elephant camp will be used to take tourists on rides in the forests, said state wildlife officials.

A detailed proposal has been sent to the government for decision. The forest department has been working on a plan to build a corridor between the Atharamura and Kalajhari ranges to facilitate the movement of wild elephants into the forest, which is believed to contain areas with man-elephant conflicts in the foothills.

The forest department, in collaboration with tourism, developed a few ecotourism sites in Khowai district because of hill ranges, rivers, diverse forests, and abandoned biodiversity resources, officials stated. Elephant safari will be one of the major attractions for the tourists in the region, they pointed out.

The Forest Department has decided to arrange for adequate food in the habitat of the elephants by excavating ponds and large-scale plantation of trees in the core area, officials said, adding, “If adequate food is arranged for elephants, they will not stray away, which will go a long way in reducing man-animal conflict.”

The state government set up an elephant reserve at Gandhari in Gomati district for better conservation of the jumbos, whose population was dwindling in the state. The reserve is spread over a 123.8 sq km area. Just 30 to 40 years ago, elephants had never been seen in inhabited areas in Agartala, officials said.

The pachyderms started invading human habitations after the cutting down of forests for the construction of a hydropower project on the Gomati River. With the loss of their habitat, the elephants started migrating to Bangladesh, where forests were abundant.

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