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| CURRENT AFFAIRS |
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MAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT |
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“Securing the elephant corridors is our only hope”
Death of an elephant in Assam has once again highlighted the conflict the state has been witnessing
Ratnadip Choudhury
Guwahati
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HEC in Naharsola Vil.Chowkihola, on the 2nd of May 2012. The animal entered from one side of the two room house, eat grains and fell down in the other side. photo by Anthony
Photo courtesy: Wildlife Trust of India (WT) |
Assam’s Karbi Anglong, and autonomous hill district, seems to be the hotbed of man-elephant conflict and the state’s forest department seems to be a silent spectator. On 16 May, a female elephant, under treatment for paralysis, died in Karbi Anglong. The adult female had been found paralysed under mysterious circumstances in Nahorsala village in the North Eastern range near Silonijan on 2 May.
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WTI vet infusing energy fluid to the injured elepahnt on the 3rd of May 2012 in Naharsala vill. this was the second day.
Photo: Borsali |
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The elephant had apparently broken into the villager’s house, where a room was used as a granary, the animal later fell down in the courtyard apparently suffering from a posterior-paralysis attack. According to eyewitnesses the elephant had been attacked by some villagers as they thought the animal was wrecking havoc in the granary.
The forest department then secured the area and called in a team of experts including veterinarians from the Guwahati Veterinary College and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) to treat the elephant. The exact cause of paralysis could not be ascertained before its death.
“Circumstantial evidence indicated possibilities of electrocution, gunshot as a retaliatory measure by people, or even an attack by a male elephant that has been sighted in the area. However, as the elephant was lying on its right flank, it was not possible to verify the cause,” said Dr Anthony Nokso Phangcho, veterinarian with WTI’s Karbi Anglong Conservation Project, supported by the Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund (JTEF). “The post-mortem and analysis of tissue samples will be done and may give information on the cause of death.”
Between 1999 and 2009, at least 23 people have lost their lives due to human-elephant conflicts in the Silonijan range alone, 120 cases of such conflicts were reported between 2007 and 2009. Retaliatory attacks on elephants are also often reported from the area, but the forest department officials are yet to take any concrete measures. Nahorsala village in Silonijan range of Karbi-Anglong is close to the Kalapahar-Doigurung Elephant Corridor.
Dilip Deori, Assistant Manager, WTI says, “Securing corridors of elephants is the long-term solution to reduce these conflicts. Along with this we also need to look at improving elephant habitats.” Deori is working with the local communities and authorities to secure the Kalapahar-Daigurung corridor as well as the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong (Panbari) corridor in Assam. “This is a difficult task. We work for years to secure one corridor, but that’s our only hope to reduce these conflicts.
Not only the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong corridor, but other elephant passes across Assam are also at risk. Large herds of wild elephants have been spotted coming down from the Bhutan foothills along the north bank of Brahmaputra early this month, creating a fresh possibility of man-beast conflict in the Sonitpur district of Assam.
Sonitpur has been infamous for man-elephant conflict. In 2006, an elephant nicknamed ‘Laden’, was shot dead by professional hunters after it had killed 14 villagers over a period of six months. Laden was a rogue, violent, isolated animal, detached from its herd, which strayed into habitations and went on the rampage. Another rogue elephant killed 12 people in a day in 1992 in the same district.
The district sits on the long migration route of the Asiatic elephant that begins from the foothills of Bhutan and ends up in northern Thailand, passing through Northeast India and Upper Myanmar. In Sonitpur, the loss of a huge chunk of forest cover has upset the elephants because they have to pass through villages to reach the Bhutan foothills, thus resulting in man-elephant conflicts. According to sources in forest department, six people and five elephants died in neighbouring Udalguri district in 2011.
The North Bank Landscape (NBL), along the north of the Brahmaputra extending up to the Eastern Himalayan foothills, across the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, is a natural habitat of about 2000 elephants. Rampant deforestation in the area has been at the root of the raging man-elephant conflict in Udalguri and Sonitpur districts.
“Human-elephant conflict is a fact of life in all areas where people and elephants coexist, and especially in agricultural areas,” said Abhijit Rabha, Chief Conservator of Forests, Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council. “If we don’t have contiguous forest, elephants will suffer. If we wish elephants to survive we must keep our forests intact and develop contiguous forest habitats so as to reduce conflict and promote peaceful coexistence.”
Ratnadip Choudhury is a Principal Correspondent with Tehelka
ratnadip@tehelka.com
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