Central Chronicle , Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Correspondent : Our Correspondent

Bhubaneswar, June 14: Rapid loss of habitat and corridors, large scale poaching and ill planned mining activities have led to a sharp decline in elephant population in Orissa over the years. A recent elephant census carried out in April by the Orissa forest department has revealed a significant decline in the number of wild elephants in the state. An analysis of the elephant population trend in the state since the last several decades too revealed a marked decline. In the 1979 census, Orissa's forests had 2,044 wild elephants. The 2002 census reported a total of 1,841. However, this year's census has revealed a total of only 1,639 animals. Nearly 98 per cent of the state's elephant population are found in the elephant reserve area. Wildlife society of Orissa (WSO) secretary Biswajit Mohanty said the elephants of the state were currently moving into ''new Unknown habitats due to man made disturbance''. He cited mining and other industries as posing a new threat for those involved in elephant conservation. Mohanty said: ''poaching has taken a heavy toll on the tuskers since their number has come down to 271 in 2005 against the previous count of 363 of 2002.'' In recent years, the poachers, he said, have been quite active in Orissa, killing 200 adult elephants over the last 15 years. During the last three years alone (2002-03 to 2004-05), poachers killed as many as 39 elephants. They were either shot or electrocuted. There has been a strong demand from Japan for ivory to make personal seals or ''Hankos''. The Indian ivory did roaring business in the international black markets, fetching five times the value of African ivory, according to Mohanty. However, the Presence of as many as 400 calves ascertained from the current count, indicated that the sex ratio was healthy and the animals were breeding well. But the poaching in the state would pose a big question mark on the future of these juveniles, Mohanty said. Many forest divisions in the state have recorded significantly low population of the pachyderms allegedly due to rapid loss of habitat and corridors as an offshoot of large scale and ill-planned mining, he added. The setting up of several sponge iron industries in Keonjhar has driven the elephants from their original habitat. As a result, only 51 elephants were recorded in the 2005 census as against 112 reported two years back. The WSO secretary said the elephant population has shown a marked decline in the Mayurbhanj elephant reserve, comprising of Simlipal tiger reserve and Kuldiha and Hadgarh wildlife sanctuaries. The current elephant population there was estimated at 465, down by 47 animals from the last estimate of 512 in 2002. Wildlife officials claimed that the decline was mainly due to rapid loss of habitat in the wake of timber smuggling and rampant collection of Sal leaves inside sanctuaries for leaf plate making. Dhenkanal district, which is an ideal elephant habitat due to its mixed forests, has also registered a decline in population due to the absence of crossing paths on the Rengali irrigation canal. He said mining, followed by deforestation and poaching, has emerged as the single most important cause for the rapid loss of elephant habitat and corridor paths. Preservation of corridors for movement of elephants were vital for their long term survival since they moved from one forest to another in search of food and water. The state government, he alleged, had been liberally issuing mining licenses for iron, chrome and bauxite and allowing industries to come up in the middle of the elephant habitat, devastating well marked corridors. Prime elephant habitats like Satkosia, Athmalik, Rairakhol, Sambalpur, Narsinghpur were now under the total grip of the timber Mafia and the forest staff were unable to counter them, he said. Though poaching was going on unabated, not a single elephant poacher had been convicted over the last two decades, Mohanty pointed out, adding, that the state government was hardly giving any importance to wildlife crimes. ''A well known ivory trader of Baripada, who was caught red handed by the forest department with smuggled ivory in 1991, is yet to face prosecution even after 14 years,'' Mohanty informed.

SOURCE : Central Chronicle, Wednesday, June 15, 2005