Arunachal: Elephant corridor project facing roadblock in Lower Mebo area following reports of misuse of funds

Lower Mebo residents, including members of the Kotga Community Reserve Society (KCRS), have expressed concern about the deputy conservator of forests' (DCF) decision to halt an ongoing elephant corridor project in Namsing (Mebo), on the outskirts of the Daying Ering Wildlife Sanctuary.

With the assistance of the KCRS, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) is implementing an elephant corridor project in Namsing village, which covers the Lower Mebo (Monggu Banggo) area and parts of the Lower Dibang Valley district.

In addition to funding for the promotion of the local tribes' cultures, the project supports the safe passage and movement of wild elephants in the Mebo area within the Pasighat territorial forest division. It also includes income generation plans such as fishery, pig farming, distribution of mechanised weaving sets, and solar plate production.
The heads of Namsing, Mer, and Gadum villages in East Siang and the nearby Paglam village in the Lower Dibang Valley have donated their land, which measures about 1,500 hectares. The society has already conducted community plantations in one-third of the targeted 1,500 hectares with the assistance of the villagers.

In the meantime, the WTI office in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, has made more than Rs 1 crore available for a variety of tasks related to the elephant corridor project. It has also installed solar-powered shock wire at specific locations to keep wild pachyderms out of areas that are home to people.

However, after the PCCF office contacted the WTI chief and demanded a halt to the current elephant corridor project, the ambitious project is now encountering a bureaucratic hurdle.
According to reports, the WTI's founder and chief executive officer has received a letter from the Itanagar-based DCF (wildlife & biodiversity) demanding that the elephant corridor project be put on hold due to "misuse of funds and allegations and counter-allegations received from local people of Mebo."

Last year on November 10, the DCF asked the WTI head to put the elephant corridor project on hold until things were back to normal on the ground. Additionally, he had asked for a copy of the MoU or MoA that had been signed by the implementing agency and the relevant authority, as well as a thorough report on the elephant corridor project and its implementation.

However, Manggu Banggo ZPM Gumin Tayeng, president of KCRS, refuted the existence of "any adverse situation in the implementation process of the elephant corridor project," adding that "a dishonest section is resorting to a hatred conspiracy to hamper the ongoing project, ignoring greater public interest." 

"The bogus claims prompted the WTI chief to halt the elephant corridor project, according to wildlife and biodiversity officials. In reality, there was no law and order issue around the project's implementation. Over 600 low-income families reside in the Monggu Banggo neighbourhood, and the sudden termination of the WTI project could have a negative impact on their quality of life, according to a statement from the ZPM.

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