In an attempt to curb human-animal conflicts along the forest fringes of Coimbatore and other districts adjoining the jungles, the state government has initiated to deploy the Rapid Action Force personnel along these areas. The RAF personnel, who are to involve in patrolling, will be trained at the Coimbatore Wildlife Training Centre for a week.

Inaugurating the training sessions, the Minister of Forests, M.S.M. Ananthan said that the RAF personnel would be deployed along forest fringes in areas including Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Gudalore, Tirunelveli, and Dharmapuri where most of the human-animal conflicts take place. “The team will be trained by wildlife experts to handle all situations. They will be able to work in such conditions in future,” he assured.

He further added that the personnel would also be taught to handle wild animals and understand their behaviour in order to handle them better. Lauding the efforts of the state government in initiating the scheme, Ananthan said that Tamil Nadu has set an example to other states on curbing the human-animal conflicts.

The minister also distributed Rs.1.33 lakh compensations to farmers who had lost their crops to wild animals. He also gave away prizes to winners of the 22nd state-level forest department sports meet.