Thousands of agitators blocked the Bantala road after continuance of frequent loss of human lives including the latest instance of death of a woman farmer in elephant attack in Talgarh village of Bantala forest range of Angul district on Tuesday.
Chhabindra Biswal and his wife Sulochana of Talgarh village were attacked by elephant while working in their farm land. Chhabindra was critically injured while Sulochana died. Later, irate locals protested at Bantala Square keeping the dead body. .
Around 25 persons have died, many have been injured and crops in hundreds of acres of land damaged in Bantala range of the district due to elephant menace in the last few months.
Human-wildlife conflicts are becoming more frequent, serious and widespread in and around Satkosia Sanctuary due to massive industrialisation, mining activities and subsequent rapid urbanisation and transport activities.
Noted wildlife activist Biswajit Mohanty said that coal mining in Angul district is the reason behind the rising human-elephant conflict. The elephants are stressed due to coal and stone quarry mining. With their corridors disturbed, they are running amok.
“ Apart from present 14 coal mines , another eight coal mines are coming up in Chhendipada area . Along with it , power plants , steel plants , aluminium plant and various other industries and infrastructure activities in Angul and Dhenkanal districts grabbed thousands acre of forest land and elephants corridors , leading to loss of precious elephant habitation,” Mohanty said.
Environmentalist Swapna Sarangi said, “Due to frequent wild animal attacks, most households have ceased cultivating paddy and other cereal crops. In the past two years, incidents of wild animal attacks have become alarmingly frequent here. Consequently, there is a prevailing fear among people regarding cultivating crops in the nearby forest areas.”
However, due to the increase in human and animal conflict and number of deaths of human lives in the recent past people from as many as six to eight GPs of Angul block have been badly affected. More than 40% area is remaining fallow without any crop due to the fear of depredation. More so local markets are equally affected by the fear of animal attack and transportation of crops to nearby markets has suffered badly as movements have been restricted in many areas, added Sarangi.