Ranchi: The state department of forest, environment and climate change is training its front line foresters in mitigating human-animal conflict and the art of sedating wild animals through tranquillizer darts.Forty forest guards, 25 range officers and 15 divisional forest officers from the state were given a day-long training at Birsa Zoological Park in Ormanjhi in air-rifle shooting, sedatives and their use and safety measures to be undertaken to prevent human or animal skirmishes when the latter veers into human settlements. The training will continue till Wednesday. The department roped in Nawab Shafath Ali Khan for the training. Based in Hyderabad, Khan is a licenced hunter who brings down wild beasts at the request of various state governments. In November last year, Khan courted controversy over the elimination of Avni, a man-eating tigress operating in Maharashtra “Man-animal conflicts have become severe in Jharkhand. Foresters are feeling the heat of it and are spending sleepless nights,” Khan told TOI. Besides demonstrating the nuances of shooting darts, Khan also shared several tactics to stay out of harm’s way such as detecting wind movement, which is used by elephants to pick up scents of humans from up to 2km. Rajiv Ranjan, DFO wildlife of Ranchi division, said the training will come in handy for foresters in rising mitigating conflicts.In 2016, the department had set up regional centres for wildlife crime control and tranquilization in its seven wildlife ranges. However, these centers lack sedatives, air-rifles and darts.

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