A total of 31 participants including executives and members from seven Gram Panchayats - Kannangala, Siddapura, Kedamallur, Ammati, Thithimathi, Badagabanangala, Nokya, Birunani and Balele Panchayat; researchers and experts from ICAR institutes, independent wildlife experts, and retired forest officers, attended the training on 7^th April. On 8 April, 27 participants attended the training, including executives and members from following seven Gram Panchayats: Hosur, Kanoor, Hathur, Bilugunda, Kutta, Halugunda, Ponnampet; researchers and experts from ICAR institutes, independent wildlife experts, and retired forest officers.

The training focused on generating awareness to reduce accidental encounters of humans with wild animals, enhancing competencies of potential community PRT members, and contributing to reducing their vulnerability to human-wildlife conflict and zoonotic diseases. This training combined the content of four trainings suggested for community PRTs. The reason was that the training group consists of only Panchayat members, while the community-PRTs have not been formed. Therefore, this training was organised as a pilot event, following which community-PRTs will be formed and then the community PRTs will be trained on individual trainings by the local training partners.

Training commenced with a welcome address by Dr Neeraj Khera, Team Leader of the Indo-German Project on HWC Mitigation, and welcome remarks by Mr M M Jaya, Former Divisional Forest Officer, Karnataka Forest Department, Dr Bharat Sonatakki, ICAR-NAARM, Dr Saju George, Head, ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Gonikoppal and Dr B M Naveena from ICAR-National Research Center on Meat. Dedicated sessions were facilitated to develop a common understanding among the participants on ecosystem services provided by wildlife in the landscape, knowledge café on measures to prevent accidental encounters with wild animal in the landscape, brainstorming sessions on type of mitigation measures-taking a holistic approach- where participants discussed and prioritised mitigation measures for addressing the drivers and pressures in their area, prevention measures, responding to emergency situations, reducing the vulnerability of people and wild animals. The discussion on reducing the vulnerability of humans and wild animals specifically focused on issues related to using alternate crops and cropping pattern. Special discussion was facilitated on preventive measures for zoonotic disease, health and safety, taking a One Health approach. An action café during the end of the training on both days focused on the Panchayats identifying HWC mitigation priorities for their respective areas and discussing the modalities of establishing community-level Primary Response Teams anchored in their Panchayats. Participants reflected on their learning during the training and provided useful feedback for the future training sessions as well.