Wildlife & Biodiversity

Over 1,500 people died in elephant attacks in last 3 years, maximum casualties in Odisha

In 2017, the environment ministry had issued a guideline for managing human-elephant conflict and had directed elephant range states to implement the same

 
By Ashis Senapati
Published: Thursday 04 August 2022

Some 1,578 people died of elephant attacks in India between 2019-20 and 2021-22, with the maximum number of deaths in Odisha, Bhupender Yadav, Union minister for environment, forest and climate change, told the Lok Sabha July 18 2022.

Odisha recorded 322 of the total 1,578 deaths by elephant attacks in the last three years.

The other states included in the state-wise data shared by the minister were — Jharkhand (291 cases), West Bengal (240), Assam (229), Chhattisgarh (183), Tamil Nadu (132), Karnataka (69), Kerala (57), Meghalaya (12), Andhra Pradesh (10), Uttar Pradesh (7), Tripura (5), Arunachal Pradesh (1) and Maharashtra (1).

Yadav elaborated on the steps taken by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Wildlife (MoEF&CC). He said the management of wildlife was primarily the responsibility of state governments / Union Territory administrations.

The central government provided financial and technical assistance to states / UTs under the centrally sponsored scheme ‘Project Elephant’. The scheme aimed at protecting and conserving elephants and their habitats in the country, Yadav said.

Compensations were provided to local communities for the losses incurred by them during human-elephant conflict. Such compensations would reduce the retaliatory killing of elephants, he added.

On February 9, 2018, the Union government, via a notification, enhanced the ex gratia compensation for human deaths caused by wild animals.

MoEF&CC had implemented various centrally sponsored schemes for improving elephants’ natural habitat by augmenting water sources, planting fodder trees, regenerating bamboo, etc, he added.

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 also provided assistance to develop wildlife habitats, establish animal rescue centres, etc.

In 2017, the MoEF&CC had issued a guideline for managing human-elephant conflict and had directed the elephant range states to implement the same.

Critical elephant habitats had been notified as ‘elephant reserves’ according to these guidelines, in order to reduce conflicts.

These guidelines were notified with the approval of a steering committee formed within the ministry. A field manual for frontline staff was also released during the 16th meeting of the steering committee April 29, 2022. So far, 31 elephant reserves had been established in 14 major elephant states.

Conflict in Odisha

During the months of April, May and June, Odisha reported  a spurt in human casualties, owing to human-elephant conflict. During summer, the elephants entered human habitats in search of food and water, which often resulted in conflicts.

LAK Singh, a former wildlife researcher of the Odisha forest department, said:

In Odisha, encounters with elephants see a sharp rise during summer. During summer, elephants feed on fruits due to a shortage of usual fodder and water in the forests. This frequently happens during the harvest of non-timber forest products — such as mahua, mango, jackfruit, bael Fruit (Bela), wood apple(Kaitha), cashew etc. 

He added that elephants stayed close to these orchards and constantly threatened humans who ventured close to them. They also threaten the lives of tribal women who ventured out to collect Kendu leaves to earn a livelihood. 

During summer, elephants also raided villages for stored food grains and liquor. Around 60 per cent of the deaths were reportedly caused by tuskers, which are considered to be more aggressive.

Biswajit Mohanty, an environmentalist and the secretary of the Wildlife Society of Orissa, said: 

Tuskers are responsible for many deaths. These conflicts can be prevented if these tuskers are identified and tracked using expert trackers. Tracking is not happening these days as most trackers are deployed for other duties. 

In 50 per cent of the cases, humans encountered elephants when they went out to relieve themselves near the forests. The department should convince people to use toilets since almost everyone has access to Swachh Bharat toilets, Mohanty added.

He noted that nearly 25 per cent of human casualties happened when elephants toppled the walls of the huts to raid paddy and liquor. The sleeping inmates were crushed under the fallen walls. 

The forest department needs a massive door-to-door campaign to make people aware of the danger of storing food grains and liquor in bedrooms, he added.

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