Odisha is turning into a graveyard for elephants with over 1,000 deaths being recorded since 2000.
“From 1990 to 2000, 333 elephant deaths were recorded. However, between 2000 and 2017, there were 1,040 deaths. In 26 years, 1,373 elephants have died,” Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) secretary Biswajit Mohanty said on Wednesday.
WSO, a non-government organisation, has been campaigning for a holistic management plan with accountability at all levels to check elephant deaths in the State.
According to WSO, if the rising death trend continues it will spell doom for the species as it might significantly overtake the birth rate.
“Over the years, the elephant population has declined from 2,044 in 1979 to 1,976 in 2017. At least 90 adult males have been killed for ivory in Odisha since April 2010, leading to a reduction in the breeding population of prime adult males,” he pointed out.
The data put out by WSO says Karnataka with 6,049 elephants has almost three times the number of jumbos that Odisha has. “In the last 16 years, about 1,150 elephants have died in Karnataka (average of 72 per year). In Odisha, 940 elephants have died (average 59 per year). Compared to Karnataka, Odisha death rate should not exceed an average of 24 deaths per year,” said Mr. Mohanty.
Electrocution has been recorded as the leading cause of unnatural elephant deaths. In the past 17 years, over 160 elephants have been electrocuted in Odisha. “Either they are killed by sagging overhead power lines or by poachers who set up wire traps, running into 2-3 km, for wild boar and deer at the edge of the forests,” said WSO researcher Ranjit Patnaik.
“Since December 2012, 42 elephants have fallen into wells. Of these, seven were killed, three sustained injuries and two calves were separated from their herd,” he said.
“Dhenkanal district has witnessed the maximum number of human-elephant conflicts in the State, possibly in the country, due to the disturbance caused to their habitat by the Rengali canal network. Already 16 elephants deaths have been recorded from April 2017 to December 2017, a new high,” said Mr. Mohanty.
