Chennai:Ā As part of the Gaj Yatra, a convoy of three life sized elephant sculptures was taken on three open vehicles through Hosur, Thalli, T Belalam, Lakshimpura, Chikawarahalli, Nelmaru, Ambalidoddi and Kembathalli on Tuesday.
A Rocha India, an international environmental non-profit organisation coordinated the yatra in the Hosur region, which covered two identified elephant corridors viz., Thalli-Bilikal and Bilikal- Jowlagiri situated between North Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary (Tamilnadu) and Bannerghatta National Park (Karnataka).
A press release said, “Street plays and a rally to involve people as a part of the campaign, awareness programmes such as drawing, wall-painting, clay modelling and tree planting in select government schools in the aforementioned elephant-corridor villages was also held.”
The event was inaugurated by Cauvery North WLS, DFO, Deepak Biligi and DSP-Denkanikota at PUP school, Sangeetha.
The Gaj Yatra is a signature campaign undertaken by Wildlife Trust India in association with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and TATA Chemicals.
The campaign, in the form of a road show covering all the elephant range States of India, is aimed at raising the profile of our National Heritage Animal- the Asian elephant, thus contributing to its conservation and welfare.
In Tamilnadu, the yatra was flagged off by Minister of Forests, Dindigul C Sreenivasan in Coimbatore, 2 February, 2019. The yatra will travel through 16 elephant corridors identified in the State.