The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has indicted the Odisha Government for the growing human-elephant conflict due to failure in the Elephant Management Plan, particularly in protection of natural habitats and traditional corridors used by the pachyderms.
The CAG in its report for the year ended March 2012 said the unnatural death toll of elephants increased from 41 in 2006-07 to 72 in 2010-11. One of the major reasons for the increasing human-elephant conflict was the straying of elephants into human habitations due to loss of their habitats caused by illegal felling of trees and illegal collection and trade in non-timber forest produces depriving the elephants of food and non-relocation of families from the core areas.
The report pointed out that as many as 310 people were killed and 82 injured, 25 cattle died and Rs9.17 crore was paid towards compassionate payment to the victims for elephant depredation during 2006 to 2011.
Despite an expenditure of Rs15.06 crore during 2006-11, the incidence of elephant depredation went unabated and the compassionate payment increased from Rs1.35 crore in 2006-07 to Rs2.44 crore in 2010-11, the report said.
Observing that there has been an increase in the number of wildlife offences, the CAG said that as per the reports, 56 cases of elephant poaching and 372 cases of poaching of other wild animals were registered during the period from 2006 to 2011. Though 816 persons were arrested, none of them was convicted till May 2012 due to non-issue of final notification of sanctuaries and provision of special lawyer for filing the prosecution cases in trial courts.
The CAG also pointed out that no special strike force has been created under the scheme on a permanent basis to combat forest offences. The Government had identified 14 critical elephant corridors between 2007-08 and 2010-11 for covering a length of 420.08 km and an area of 870.61 km for linking the protected areas for free movement of elephants.
Though the Forest and Environment Department prepared a five-year Corridor Management Plan in 2010-11 at an estimated cost of Rs51.22 core having interface in terms of mining, railway lines, roads and irrigation canal, etc, the plan has not been executed due to non-finalisation of the project.
The report said that out of the total expenditure of Rs7.35 crore made for Project Elephant,Rs98 lakh was utilised for protection of elephant habitats and corridors which accounted for only 13.33 per cent of the total expenditure. The very purpose of preparing the corridor management plan for linking the protected areas for free movement of elephants was not effective due to the lack of effective execution, the report said.