Soon, elevated PDS shops to prevent wild elephant raids in Tamil Nadu

Forest officials of Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) are in the process of constructing Public Distribution System (PDS) shops on elevated pillars in Valparai's Thirumalai to protect the commodities from the wild elephants' raids.

A meeting held between officials of the forest department, including ATR officials, revenue and civil supplies department officials, on Monday finalised this experimental project.

If the project to be implemented at Thirumalai in Valparai turns successful, then it will be extended to places affected by human-elephant conflict.

Notbaly, the Kerala forest department has in its forest policy note recently decided to plant jackfruit trees and other fruit-bearing trees that are dear to elephants within forest land. Taking a cue from this, Tamil Nadu forest department will also be planting jackfruit trees within its forest land so that wild elephants don't venture out into human settlements bordering forest lands.

The forest department and civil supplies department has taken the initiative to construct a model ration shop to prevent the wild elephant's access to the PDS commodities as the next three months will be a migration period for elephants.

The municipal department officials who were also part of the revenue team that attended the meeting informed the ATR officials to erect sign boards for the tourists on the do's and dont's at the tourist sites in Valparai.

It is to be noted that a majority of the PDS shops in the ATR area and other human inhabitations bordering forest lands don't have shops that are concrete structures and there were instances of wild elephants targeting specific shops for the commodities that include sugar and jaggery.