Human-elephant conflicts are on the rise in Sundargarh district. This is evident from the fact that as many as 27 elephants and 91 persons were killed during last six years in the district.
There are three forest divisions in Sundargarh district such as Rourkela, Bonai and Sundargarh. According to forest officials, as many as 11 elephants are currently moving in forests under Rourkela forest division, about 10 elephants are moving in Bonai forest division and 45 elephants are moving in Sundargarh forest division.
According to the forest sources, elephant numbers are increasing in Sundargarh district day by day as elephants are migrating from Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Bamra and Jharusugda forests. Elephants are usually moving towards human habitation area and damaging crops in the field and eating vegetables, paddy and rice.
Sources said elephants like to eat ficus species such as atundi climber, Banyan trees (Bara) and Moraceae (Osta trees) and also bamboo plants but since these trees are nowadays getting scant, elephants in forests are straying into human habitations, particularly to villages adjacent to forest, to eat vegetables in the field, paddy and rice. As a result, the innocent villagers are falling victim in elephant attack. Despite all measures, the elephant and human conflict is continuing unabated.
Even if to stop elephants from going to human habitation, solar fencing in some areas in Sundargarh district was done, jumbos are still on the upper hand and killing humans and damaging their crops.
The three forest divisions of Sundargarh district are providing compensation to the family members of elephant attack victims. Forest officials are trying to apply some method like megaphone to alert people by announcing, using fire brands to check human-elephant confrontation but elephant menace is increasing day by day.
Two days ago, a tusker attacked an elderly man near his house under Ujjalpur forest range of Sundargarh forest division and later the elderly man succumbed to his injuries. The tusker also damaged houses of that man and also damaged another two houses in the locality.
Similarly, about a month ago, an elephant was killed and later buried by villagers in Rajgangpur forest out of vengeance as the elephant was damaging their crops in field. Similarly, another injured elephant in Bargaon forest range has been creating panic among locals and damaging the crops of locals.
Recently, a team had come to tranquilize the elephant for his treatment but failed. The figure of human-elephant conflict shows that 90 persons have lost their lives in elephant attack in Sundargarh district from 2013-14 to 2018-19 and 27 elephants have been killed over the same period. The rising figure has been a cause of concern for the forest officials.
To check the human-elephant conflict, forest divisions of district have opened Whatsapp group with Wesco and railway official for sharing elephant movement. Sources said the Wildlife Institute of India,
Dehradun, is going to start satellite tracking of elephants in forests under Sundargarh forest division and in forests under the Rourkela forest division by March 2019 to track their movement.
“The human-elephant conflict has been a cause of concern for us but our squads are keeping watch on the jumbos to avoid any casualty,” said Regional Chief Conservator of Forest, Rourkela, Lingraj Otta, adding, “We are also trying to ensure safe movement of jumbos in forests.”