The April, May, June quarter of 2023, compared to last nine years,has seen a26 % rise in number of human- elephant encounters which resulted in more human kills and injuries than ever before,a rise of 50% above the highest human kills of last year.
According to Wildlife Society of Orissa secretary Dr Biswajit Mohanty, the escalating figures each year also indicate that elephants are straying out of their habitats more often due to huge levels of disturbances caused by quarries and crushers and night movement of trucks and tractors. There is also a lack of adequate forest fodder and amarked shift towards consumption of farm cropsand food grains stored inside villages.
Palm fruits which are their prime source of food during June and July havebecome scarce due to massive felling of palm trees for inter-State trade to Nadu. Dhenkanal, Angul and Deogarh districts have lost thousands of palm trees since the last three years as organised timber traders camp there and decimate the trees.
Dhenkanal has recorded a ten-fold jump in diversion of elephant habitat for black and laterite stone quarries, stone crushers and steel/power Plants between 2011 and 2021. The Wildlife Wing has failed to take any action in view of growing demands to shut down the quarries.
Odisha happens to have a dubious record of more number of human kills among all other States despite an elephant Population of 1,976 compared to Karnatakas 6,049, Assams 5,719, Keralas 3,054 and Tamil Nadus 2,761 as per the last national level census carried out in August, 2017.