As we celebrate the World Elephant Day today (August 12), the distressed elephants of Odisha face an uncertain and dangerous future. The safety of our National Heritage Animal in Odisha, the land of Gajapati, is in peril. Once the pride of Odisha, the State has turned into a graveyard for elephants.
In the year 1979 there were 2, 044 elephants in Odisha and they ranged wide in the dense forests of Dhenkanal, Deogarh, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Angul, Sundargarh and Cuttack districts. Now, their number has reduced to 1,976, last counted three years ago in 2017, but they have been forced to leave their native forests scattering into smaller populations and spreading out to several other districts. Notably no census has been undertaken since last three years in Odisha.
Fourteen elephant corridors were officially identified by the Odisha Government in January 2010 covering over 870 sq km, with the length being 420.8 km and included three inter-State corridors with West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Rs 20 crore was spent on these corridors improvement. However, these corridors are not protected under law
Odisha had also identified five Elephant Reserves out of which notification was done for only three - the Mahanadi Reserve (8,036 sq. km), the Mayurbhanj Reserve (7,043 sq. km) and the the Sambalpur Reserve (5,846 sq.km), but the South Odisha Reserve (4,216 sq.km) and the Baitarani Reserve (10,516 sq.km) have not been notified after the powerful mining lobby pressurized the State Government to withdraw attempts to notify in 2007.
The elephant mortality rate is rising alarmingly as the average death per year which was 33 per year from 1990 to 2000 became 46 per year from 2000 to 2010, but since 2010, the average has become 78 per year.
While 463 elephant deaths were recorded during the period 2000 to 2010, the number grew sharply to 784 elephant deaths in the period 2010 to 2020.
The Odisha elephant population now faces a gravest threat as about 20 adult breeding male elephants die each year, mostly to poaching and electrocution. Conservative figures put adult males including sub adults at about 150-175 but the large adult breeding males above the age of 20 to 25 could be as less as 80 to 100. Mating by immature males will lead to birth of more and more unhealthy calves resulting in higher mortality.
A dangerous trend of capturing wild tuskers who attack villagers and houses and keeping them inside zoos has emerged.
There is virtually a collapse in the protection and conservation of elephants in Odisha with the Government doing little or nothing to protect elephant population. Unless there is regular monitoring and fixing of accountability right from the Chief Minister and Minister of Forest and Environment, elephants of Odisha will continue to perish in such large numbers bringing ignominy to our State at national and international levels. In Keonjhar more than 12 unnatural deaths of elephants have been recorded in recent years but the current DFO under whose tenure this happened has not faced action
The Forest department is now fencing off hundreds of acres of dense forest habitat of elephants by barbed wire fences which remain in place for 5-7 years. This prevents easy elephant movement in Keonjhar, Angul, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur and Sundargarh districts leading to serious conlict with locals.
(The writer is secretary, Wildlife Society of Orissa)