¦ Solution continues to elude state
¦ 313 people died in elephant attacks in the past five years
Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: This being paddy harvesting in Assam, the man-elephant conflicts in the state have reached their peak, leading to the death of reapers at some places and elephants at some other places. An irate mob of villagers had to gherao the Titabor Forest office on Friday for the department's failure to control the menace of elephant depredation.
According to statistics disclosed in the parliament by Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest Kirti Vardhan Singh, in the past five years, 313 people died in elephant attacks in Assam, which is at the fourth spot from the top insofar as man-animal conflicts are concerned. In 2023, the then Forest Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary informed the state assembly that on average 70 men and 80 elephants die in the state annually due to man-elephant conflicts.
The solution to man-elephant conflicts continues to elude Assam, which only witnesses a blame game-the forest department blaming people for rampant deforestation and people blaming the department for not taking adequate measures to prevent elephant depredation.
Experts have identified three causes for man-elephant conflicts in the state: the loss of elephant habitats due to rampant and illegal deforestation, the increase in the population of both men and elephants, and the scarcity of elephant food. An adult elephant consumes around 240 kg of plant materials over 18 hours. When elephants do not get this much food, they frequent the nearby human habitations and paddy fields.
Assam is only next to Karnataka in the population of elephants. The 2017-18 elephant census found 5,719 elephants in Assam, and now the figure has surpassed 6,000.
An expert said, "Being a large herbivorous animal, an elephant needs vast areas to roam and browse, moving from place to place in search of food and water with changing seasons. During this dry season, naturally the state's deciduous forest shed their leaves, leading to a scarcity of food for animals like elephants. This leads jumbos to frequent nearby villages and paddy fields. Elephants destroy more quantity of paddy than what they eat. This leads farmers to be aggressive against elephants and attack them."
Several experts in the state moot three measures on the part of the government to take to keep the ever-worsening man-elephant conflicts in the state at bay. The experts feel that awareness among villagers is a must, besides the government compensating the loss-making farmers adequately and promptly. These may lessen people's aggression towards elephants. The experts feel the need of a legal mechanism with stringent action on anyone trying to harm elephants, besides making elephant habitats free from encroachers.
In order to cushion the blow from man-elephant conflicts, some NGOs have been planting herbs that serve as elephant feeds in different areas in the state. The impact of man-elephant conflicts is less in these areas.
Also Read: Assam: Human-Elephant Conflicts Lead to the Death of a Man
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