Regional Forum of the Eastern and North Eastern States on Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation in India

27 Dec, 2019

The Indo-German cooperation on Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation facilitated a regional forum of the Eastern and North Eastern States on Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) Mitigation in India at Hotel Fairfield by Marriott, Kolkata on 27th December 2019. The event started with a welcome address by Mr Ravi Kant Sinha, PCCF (HOFF & CWLW, West Bengal) followed by introduction to the Indo- German project on HWC and context of the state HWC Strategy and action plan process and the regional forum by Dr. Neeraj Khera, Team Leader, HWC Project, GIZ. Mr. Soumitra Dasgupta, IGF (Wildlife), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change gave a special address on regional forum, HWC project and CMS COP-13.

The discussion started with brainstorming session on the HWC situation, current good practices and successful mitigation measures in the states. A special forum discussion on state specific draft State Level HWC Strategy and Action also took place where Dr Neeraj presented key processes, milestones and capacity needs for developing State HWC Strategy and Action Plans and shared drafts/outlines of State HWC Strategy and Action Plan. The forum saw participation from senior forest officials from the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, retired senior forest officials and wildlife experts.