Elephant Arrival IT Center established in Bahundhangi

JHAPA: An Elephant Arrival Information Technology Center has been established at Bahundangi of Mechinagar Municipality-4.

The centre will collect information about the elephants that cross the border from India to Nepal with the help of a GPS or Global Positioning System.

The GPS has been installed at the Small Customs Office at Bahundangi.

The technology of collecting information about the arrival of elephants through a mobile application called ‘Luna GPS’ has been introduced in Jhapa for the first time in Nepal with the support of ‘Ujyalo Nepal’ Bardiya and ‘Youth Collaboration for Society’ Dhangadhi, said Ward President of Mechinagar-4 Arjun Kumar Karki.

The Luna GPS is the first made in Nepal GPS tracking system.

If an elephant has entered a village the local residents can report about it using the app.

The siren in the control room is set to sound automatically when the information is entered in the app.

Based on the GPS address entered in the app arrangements have been made for the local Rapid Rescue Team (RRT) workers to reach the village where the elephant is for the safety of the local residents, Karki said.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Devraj Ghimire inaugurated the Centre at a programme organised on Friday.

Ramesh Thapa, an expert from Ujyalo Nepal, said that Luna GPS will be an effective means of providing information to the rescue team in time so that elephants do not enter the village and cause human damage.

The app will be useful not only for monitoring the movement of elephants but also during any disaster.

Bahundangi is the main entry point for wild elephant herds entering Nepal from India.