As the Orissa High Court is scheduled to hold an important hearing on elephant deaths on January 18, the human deaths caused by man-elephant encounters in Odisha have reached an all-time high.
From April 2019 to March 2020, 117 people died in man-elephant encounters, surpassing 115 human deaths recorded in a year. The human deaths are likely to go up further since harvesting paddy is still continuing in several regions of the State.
This year, man-elephant encounters were recorded 202 times across the State. During April 2019 to March 2020, as many as 204 such encounters were documented. The disturbing picture of man-elephant conflict was observed at a time when a Division Bench of the Orissa High Court comprising Chief Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice M.S. Raman postponed the next hearing on the PILs concerning elephant deaths on January 18.
Wildlife experts said the elephants were venturing into newer habitations in search of paddy and other farm produces. Elephants, especially male ones, are attracted to palatable and most nutritious food. Male elephants have five times greater tendency to go for crop raids than their female counterparts.
“They are straying into human habitations due to fragmentation of elephant corridors. Their movement has been obstructed as the State government is going in for blind expansion of industrial, mining and road projects,” said Biswajit Mohanty, a wildlife expert.
Elephant movements were noticed in areas where people were not habituated to facing the mammals previously. Places like Kendrapara and Puri have now seen elephant movements. The Nabarangpur district recently recorded a rare human death in an elephant attack.
Last week, four people in Odisha’s Angul district were trampled to death by a male adult elephant, which went on a rampage in different villages. Mr. Mohanty pointed out that the situation would worsen if the State government did not secure elephant passages or corridors.
Securing the corridors
About two decades ago, the Odisha government identified 14 elephant corridors or passages which were fragmented. These corridors should have been kept free for elephant movements.
During a presentation before the Orissa High Court last month, Raman Sukumar, honorary professor of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, laid emphasis on securing the corridors.
“In Odisha, the Mayurbhanj elephant reserve has been notified and is a very good reserve. The Sambalpur Elephant Reserve is not adequate in size. While the area of the reserve is about 400 sq km, the elephants’ range is about 1000 sq km. The Mahanadi elephant reserve is more than 2000 sq km. There is a need to strengthen the corridor between the Sambalpur Elephant Reserve and the Mahanadi Reserve,” said Dr. Sukumar.
“Both the Sambalpur and Mahanadi elephant reserves can be linked with an elephant corridor. The two reserves, which are home to 75% of the elephant population, hold enormous potential for elephant conservation. The remaining 25% of the elephants are roaming in other areas,” he pointed out.
Stating that two corridors, the Nuagaon-Baruni and Hadgarh-Kuldiha corridors, were considered very important for ensuring the free movement of elephants, he said, “In the Nuagaon-Baruni corridor, there are obstacles to the free movement of elephants due to the ongoing construction of the right and left main canal of the Manjhor irrigation project. These two canals do not have any ramps or overpasses for animals to cross.”
“Similarly, in Hadgarh-Kuldiha, there are more than 100 stone quarries obstructing the movement of elephants,” said the renowned conservationist.
Dr. Sukumar said, “The Odisha Forest department should immediately initiate steps for securing the two important corridors— the Nuagaon-Baruni and the Hadgarh-Kuldiha corridors. The seven other corridors listed in the Wildlife Trust of India report should be taken up subsequently,” he said.
“The two reserves, which are home to 75% of the elephant population, hold enormous potential for elephant conservation”Raman SukumarHonorary professor of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
