Tirupati: In a bid to reduce the growing human-elephant conflicts in Tirupati district, senior officials from multiple departments convened a virtual coordination meeting. District Collector Dr S Venkateswar chaired the session alongside Chandragiri MLA Pulivarthi Nani, District Forest Officer P Vivek, and other key officials.

During the meeting, District Forest Officer announced the formation of a dedicated Elephant Task Force (ETF) under the direction of the Deputy Chief Minister. A monitoring cell will be set up in Tirupati with three control rooms at the Collectorate, SP office, and DFO office. The task force will be led by a nodal officer, with the DFO acting as chairman.

He highlighted that 30 villages in Chinnagottigallu mandal have reported intense elephant activity, with a fatal incident in Kothapalli village on April 25.

The DFO stressed the need for immediate information sharing through panchayat secretaries, especially in high-risk villages, and warned against provoking elephants by throwing stones.

Police and panchayat officials must be present at incident sites, especially near water sources. Measures like raising low-hanging power lines and removing electric fencing from farmland were emphasised. Railways were urged to reduce train speeds near Mamandur at night to avoid accidents.

MLA Nani recommended appointing more trained trackers from Chittoor and Tirupati and highlighted the urgency of compensating crop damage victims promptly. Collector Dr Venkateswar directed that all pending compensation cases be reported immediately.

He called for interdepartmental coordination, including WhatsApp groups for faster updates, and instructed APSPDCL to work closely with forest officials to resolve power line issues.