Around 14 elephants have died due to electrocution in Chhattisgarh between 2005 to 2013 says a report prepared by Greenpeace India.
Human-elephant conflicts in Chhattisgarh have increased many folds while the human casualties have increased eight times since 2005 stated the report titled ‘Elephant in the Room’ released here in a news conference on Tuesday.
The report studied the human-elephant conflicts in four thriving forest divisions of Chhattisgarh–South Surguja, Katghora, Korba and Dharamjaigarh in which two coal fields, Hasdeo Arand and Mandraigarh, are located.
Human-elephant conflict has also caused 198 human deaths here in the same period. The State recorded 8,657 incidents of property damages and 99,152 incidents of crop damage between 2004 and 2014. Total compensation paid towards human-elephant conflict has amounted to Rs 2,140.20 lakh during this period, it stated.
The study takes an inclusive look at the current issues within these four forest divisions where coal mining is proposed.
Incidentally, elephant presence was recorded in most of the coal blocks in the study area, where the Government has identified sites for mining. These forest divisions already account for an average of more than 30% human death and crop damage incidents of the state. Hence, further diversion of forests here could lead to an increase in the existing human-elephant conflict, the report says.
“Yet, the State ( Chhattisgarh) Government seems more keen on mining in the forests than notifying the proposed lemru Elephant Reserve or taking any concrete steps to manage the conflict despite warnings and protests”, Greenpeace Campaigner and lead author of the report Nandikesh Shivalingam claimed.
He added that “despite glaring evidence of elephant presence in these forest divisions and advice from expert bodies to protect Korba and Dharamjaigarh forests, the State has dropped the proposed lemru Elephant Reserve, possibly due to mining interests”.
These forests are home not just to elephants but also leopards and sloth bears, and may be even tigers. It was ironical that the State dropped the lemru Reserve after obtaining all permissions from the Centre in 2007, he added.
“Only 12-15 per cent coal mining lie in dense forest areas while we are exploiting coal in enough quantity from other coal mines to fulfil our all the needs”, said local Environmentalist and Advocate Sudip Shrivastava.
He alleged that the State Government wants to distribute more coal mines including those situated in dense forest, which is habitat of many wild animals including elephants, only to generate more revenue.
Pointing to this irony, Goldman Environment Prize winning activist Ramesh Agarwal said, “The State’s proposal to confining the elephants within protected areas far away from the these forests is clearly not the solution. This is costing the state a colossal loss of human and elephant lives, as well as wasting public money. Hence, there is a need for a comprehensive plan to save the wildlife and the people of the State.”
Well-known wildlifer and conservation biologist, Dr Ravi Chellam, Alok Shukla from Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan and Sajal Kumar, a resident of Dharamjaigarh block also shed lights on other aspects of this issue.
They claimed that haphazard planning on the part of authority concerned also account for worsening the situation. last month, a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court cancelled the licences of 214 coal blocks terming the allocations as illegal.
Stating that the recent judgment was heartening to activists and their long fight to save the Indian forests, Shivalingam said, “Government has got yet another opportunity to correct the wrongs. We now urge the Centre and the State Government to avoid auctioning within the forests and setup an independent committee to study the elephant movements in the State to manage the human-wildlife conflict more effectively.”