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Gujarat: ‘Machadas’ to help check man-beast conflict
TNN | Updated: Feb 26, 2020

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AHMEDABAD: To monitor human-wildlife conflict, the Gujarat forest department has started building high towers called ‘machadas’ in Gir and Greater Gir landscape, the last habitat of Asiatic lions.
The towers are equipped with solar-powered mobile charger, and financial assistance of Rs 17,300 is given to farmers for the foundation work for the machadas, officials said.

“The scheme has been rolled out recently and 8,000 farmers have so far enlisted. With big cats increasingly moving out of protected areas, we aim to implement this scheme aggressively and cover new areas like Chotila,” said a forest official.
“Issues for conservation are changing, the lion is regaining its territory and moving out of the core area, hence it is important for the forest department to gear up for the new challenges, not just for lion but all species,” said D K Sharma, principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and head of forest force (HoFF), Gujarat.

The scheme aims to protect people from being attacked by lions and the farmers can seek refuge on these machadas, where they can rest or even sleep to escape attacks from wild animals.

He was speaking at a session on the conservation efforts by Gujarat forest department at the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS-COP13) held in Gandhinagar recently.
Mohan Ram, deputy conservator of forests, Sasan, ascribed significance to research and training as they are the basis of all other practices. The Gir National Park area has camera traps for monitoring, radio-collaring of lions (world’s largest project), GPS monitoring, a wireless communication system, foot patrols and better facilities with the wildlife rescue service. Reply