No End in Sight for Man-Animal Conflict

New Indian Express , Monday, September 01, 2014
Correspondent :
BALASORE: Sukura Singh of Hatimunda village breaks down while describing the plight of his family. For the last three years during winter, elephants from Jharkhand have been rendering him and his family homeless.

Singh is not the only person affected by the ongoing man-animal conflict in the area. Like Hatimunda, people of villages located in the border areas of Mayurbhanj-Balasore elephant corridor are victims of this menace. Due to destruction of elephant corridors in the neighbouring State, more elephants are intruding into human habitats here.

Loss of habitat and corridors, large scale poaching and ill-planned mining activities have led to increase in man-elephant conflict in Odisha over the years. This has assumed alarming proportion during the last few years.

Sources said altogether 28 people, 45 elephants and 8 bears have died in the conflicts in the last five years. Apart from this, elephants have damaged 342 houses, 1,252 acres of paddy and vegetable crops during the period in both the districts. In 2013 alone, the 120-odd elephants’ herd from Jharkhand had destroyed houses of at least 162 families in Nilagiri sub-division. Altogether 800 people were affected.

Destruction of animal habitats has also a negative impact on the wildlife population that is evident from the census data indicating a decline in their number over the years.

Honourary Wildlife Warden Jayant Chandra Mardaraj Harichandan said the destruction of corridors across the State has not only caused man-animal conflict but also brought down wildlife population. “Forest officials need to take up stringent measures to check wildlife crime. There is an urgent need to protect these animals before they are pushed to extinction,” he said.

RCCF Anup Nayak said a decision for a comprehensive study on wildlife migration was taken during a recent coordination meeting of wildlife officials of Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal on man-animal conflict and wildlife crime. “We hope this study would help us take remedial measures to check the problem,” he added.

 
SOURCE : http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/No-End-in-Sight-for-Man-Animal-Conflict/2014/09/01/article2408994.ece
 


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