Elephants continued to die in Odisha by coming in contact with live wire with the Forest and Environment department reporting six electrocution deaths of jumbos within last three months.
Odisha, which is among few States where man-elephant conflicts has assumed critical proportion, has lost 431 elephants since 2009-10. During the same time, 448 humans were killed by marauding elephants in different parts of the State.
“While sagging electric wire caused many elephant deaths in the past, there has been a change in the trend. Of late, some villagers in forest fringe habitats have been very active in setting up traps for other wild animals. Unfortunately, elephants walk into the trap and are getting killed,” said Angul-based environmentalist Prasanna Kumar Behera.
Mr. Behera, who has been raising awareness against elephant poaching in coordination with the Forest and Environment department, said lack of stringent action against offenders has emboldened them and traps are still being laid.
“Apart from strengthening mechanism for collecting intelligence input for preventing deaths due to traps, the Forest department must establish proper coordination with power utilities so that electrocution deaths could be checked,” he maintained.Out of 431 elephant deaths since 2009-10, 63 have been categorised as electrocution deaths. This year, 22 elephant deaths have been reported. Six are due to electrocution. In 2011, two full-grown elephants had died when they came in contact with sagging live wire in Telekoi of Keonjhar district. Subsequently, energy department had been frequently reminded about strengthening power infrastructure so that precious elephant lives could be saved. But there has been no visible improvement in the infrastructure.
While maximum 98 elephants died due to natural diseases, poaching and poisoning claimed 54 lives. Incidentally, 14 elephants succumbed to injuries after being hit by trains in past seven years.
Man-elephant conflict is one of the biggest concerns for the State government. It has so far disbursed Rs.49 crore towards compensation for loss of life, properties and crop due to elephant depredation since 2009-10. In case of rest of other wild animals, compensation money was meagre -- Rs.4.5 crore. As per the latest census, there are about 1,954 elephants in the State.