‘Golden Jackal Ambassadors’ scheme to be launched in schools, colleges of Tenkasi district

As the population of golden jackal is rapidly dwindling due to indiscriminate construction activities being taken up in the areas closer to residential areas after removing the forests and shrubs, the Tenkasi district forest division is set to launch ‘Golden Jackal Ambassadors’ scheme in the schools and colleges.

The students, who will be badged as ‘Golden Jackal Ambassadors’ after undergoing comprehensive training and awareness sessions on conserving wildlife, will disseminate messages on conserving golden jackal, rescuing and treating the injured golden jackals and releasing them back in the forests.

According to District Forest Officer R. Rajmohan, the lack of awareness among the public on conserving small animals like golden jackal, mongoose, ant-eater, tortoise, snakes, monitor lizard etc. had led to the sharp fall in the population of these animals and the reptiles. Hence, the forest department has proposed to create awareness.

The recently launched ‘Friends of Elephants’ scheme for minimising or even averting completely the conflict between humans and the elephants has started yielding good results as the villagers are cooperating with the forest personnel in alerting the entry of elephants from the forest areas into their ranches or hamlets. Besides creating awareness among the public through the ‘Friends of Elephants’, the forest department has started creating sufficient food inside the forest by cultivating native plants inside the forest which are preferred by elephants.