KOLKATA: Wildlife officials believe that the four-day elephant census that ended on Thursday will reveal a considerable increase in population in north Bengal where the elephant-human conflict is among the highest in the country.

The last censusin 2005 estimated the population at between 300 and 350, while it was around 280 in the one carried out two years earlier.

"We have been monitoring the situation through the year and find new recruits to the population. Though we have lost a few elephants due to natural deaths and collision with trains, the overall numbers should be more than that in the last census estimates," State's Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Ujjal Bhattacharjee told The Hindu .

The census area extends from the eastern border of Nepal to Assam with Bhutan in the north.

The census workers, divided into about 200 teams, identified nearly 600 blocks recognised as the elephants' preferred zones across grasslands, forests and riverbeds and positioned themselves along known corridors through which the herds move, to prevent double counting, Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

There has been a steady five per cent annual increase in the elephant population in the region over the years, with the female-male ratio being around a "healthy" 4:1, experts say.

Though this may come as welcome news to conservators, encroachment in the elephant corridors and shrinkage in forest cover have resulted in a worrisome increase in elephant-human conflict, with an average of 50 human deaths reported each year. The elephants in the region are largely raiders of crop, which is abundant in the region, they say.

The wildlife authorities will be conducting another census in south-west Bengal — another region in the State where the animal is seen in large numbers. It is to be held from May 8 to 10.

Simultaneous counts

Simultaneous counts will be held in the neighbouring Orissa and Jharkhand from where there is a seasonal migration of elephants into West Bengal. According to the last census, the estimated number of elephants in this region is between 100 and120.

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