The Wild Orissa, an organisation for conservation of nature and wildlife, will be associating in a big way in the 7th All India Elephant Census to start in Odisha, WB and Jharkhand from May 9 to 12.
For the first time, four eastern Indian States such as Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal will conduct elephant enumeration at the same time to eliminate double counting, as per decision taken by the Government of India.
Eastern Indian States being one of the largest holders of elephants in the country after South, the move is aimed at eliminating any duplication in numbers since the jumbos migrate across the borders from Odisha to WB and Jharkhand, and from Jharkhand to WB frequently.
The Wildlife Organisation of Odisha Government in collaboration with Project Elephant (Government of India) has planned the census in every elephant-bearing forest division across the State. Two different methodologies would be adopted for the census. Apart from direct sighting, the dung decay method will also be employed. An indirect methodology, the dung decay is a statistical method which is employed to calculate elephant numbers by monitoring the decay rate. The direct methodology, as it is, will use sighting in forests and waterholes in a line transect method.
Various critical inputs will be obtained during the census exercise including changes in elephant habitats due to human intervention, the male-female ratio, population figures, reasons for man-animal conflicts, etc.
The elephant conservation in Odisha has been threatened by the shrinkage, degradation, fragmentation and resource exploitation by human activities thereby altering the extent and spatial configuration of their habitat and in few cases restricting them into small pocketed herds in habitat islands. This has constricted the elephant herds into protected areas and few intact forests surrounded by human-dominated landscape leading to increased human-elephant conflict. With continuous loss of habitable areas qualitatively as well as quantitatively, elephants are forced to raid crops to meet their energy requirements. During such forays, the elephants come into villages or agricultural lands, which ultimately lead to confrontation with human and human-elephant conflict.
Despite the growing concern and measures adopted to deal with the human-elephant conflict, the problem still remains unresolved. Physical barriers, electric fencing, olfactory repellents, distress noise and co-operative guarding of crops are often seen as the enduring solution in human-elephant conflict situations. Creation of pools and check dam inside the forest to ensure water availability may help in mitigating the conflict as elephants use water sources in human areas.
Quick settlement of claims would be of benefit in developing positive attitude in local people and mitigation of human-elephant conflict. An integrated community development and elephant habitat conservation practice can be useful to reduce the conflict by developing economic and social tolerance to damage caused by elephants. Education and awareness programmes on the ecology and behavior of elephant and on mitigation strategies should be initiated for villagers in affected areas.
Odisha has 12,000-15,000 sqkm of elephant habitat. During the years, 2001 and 2002, three Elephant Reserves were notified in Odisha viz. Mayurbhanj ER, Mahanadi ER and Sambalpur ER. Unfortunately the two other elephant reserves approved by the Government of India such as Baitarani ER and South Orissa ER, have not yet been notified by the Government of Odisha.