President Droupadi Murmu on Friday said people should protect elephants, conserve their natural habitats and keep elephant corridors free from obstruction.
Inaugurating a two-day ‘Gaj Utsav-2023’ on Friday at the Kaziranga National Park, she said the human-elephant conflict has been an issue for centuries.
“When we analyze this conflict, it is found that a barrier created in the natural habitat or movement of elephants is the root cause. Therefore, the responsibility of this conflict lies with human society.”
Her statement comes amid concerns that despite India having more than 80 elephant corridors across the country, only one such corridor in Tamil Nadu – Sigur – has been notified.
A second corridor in Odisha (Simlipal) proposed long ago, is yet to be legally recognised by the State Government.
Notification of elephant corridors is being seen as a major strategy to avoid commercial constructions and human settlements in forested areas for trouble-free movement of elephants and for lowering human-animal conflict. Every year at least 500 people die while 100 jumbos are dying in man-animal conflict.
The festival aims to raise awareness about elephant conservation, stop conflicts between people and elephants, and protect their corridors and habitat.
Solving the problems related to human-elephant conflict is the aim of project elephant, she said and added that human society will be benefited through elephant conservation and it would also help in addressing the climate change issue.
She said that Kaziranga and Manas National Parks of Assam are an invaluable heritage not only of India but of the whole world. That is why these have been given the status of ‘World Heritage Site’ by UNESCO.
Union Environment Minister Bhupinder Yadav said that so far 88 corridors that the jumbos used to move from one part of the country to another have been identified. Survey is being conducted to identify more. In the last three years, 41 elephants were killed by accelerating locomotives
The Minister also said that at least 100 hotspot stretches have been identified where elephants come head-on with the railways.
“Mitigation strategies such as creation of ramps and underpasses are being developed to avoid such conflicts and save the jumbos,” he added.