Chennai, Aug 17 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu Forest Department is preparing for the upcoming elephant migration season that commences from October and continues till March.

The Dharmpauri forest division, which has 1.64 lakh hectares of forest land and 136 reserve forests, have set up anti-depredation committees to prevent human-elephant conflict during the migration season.

The Department has also set up such anti- depradation camps across all the forest ranges of the state so that the effect of human-elephant conflict is minimised.

In the Dharmpauri Elephant Corridor, which includes Palacode, Pennagram and Hogenakkal forest ranges, there are villages where high human-elephant conflicts occur.

A Department official told IANS said the key responsibilities of the anti-depredation committees include averting human- elephant conflict as well as to organise awareness camps for residents of the villages.

Each of these committees have 25 members of which four will be from the Department who are experts on studying the movement of elephants and trained to monitor them, the official added.

In the future, these committees will be extended to all other parts of the state.