Odisha sees record human casualties in wild elephant attacks
The number of human deaths in encounters with wild elephants in Odisha has increased to 149 during 202324, recording an alltime high human casualties in the current year.
A woman identified as Ituwari Bhadra was trampled by an elephant in Bonei Forest Division of Sundargarh district on March 7 taking the total human toll to 149 in 249 encounters with elephants.
It surpassed the previous record of 148 deaths in 202223.
“In 201920, human deaths by elephants rose sharply crossing 100 to reach 115 deaths. Since then, the human fatalities have been on the rise consistently crossing 100 deaths each year reaching an alltime high of 148 in 202223,” said Biswajit Mohanty, a wildlife expert and secretary to Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO), an environmental pressure group.
With another 20 days left for 202324 financial year to end, 149 people have already died and 122 have sustained injuries in elephant attacks.
The toll surpassed the previous record of 148 deaths in 202223
Lower elephant count
Mr. Mohanty pointed out that Odisha was the leading State in losing humans to wild elephants in the country despite having lower elephant population compared to States such as Karnataka, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The 2017 elephant census stated that Odisha has 1,976 elephants, compared to Karnataka’s 6,049, Assam’s 5,719, Kerala’s 3,054 and Tamil Nadu’s 2,761.
“Between 201920 and 202122, 1,579 people were killed in the country by elephants, the Environment Ministry said in the Lok Sabha last year in response to a question. Odisha topped the list with 322 deaths, followed by Jharkhand (291), West Bengal (240), Assam (229), Chhattisgarh (183) and Tamil Nadu (152),” Mr. Mohanty pointed out.
The WSO analysis states that of the 149 human deaths, Dhenkanal, which is the epicentre of humanelephant conflicts, has suffered the most, recording 31 deaths, followed by Angul (24), Sundargarh (22), Keonjhar (18) and Mayurbhanj (10).
Hindol and Bantala forest range in Dhenkanal have seen 15 and 13 persons losing their lives, respectively, during the year.