Decimation of pachyderm landscape in Odisha triggers human-elephant conflict

Unabated human interference in the form of mining, farming, industries and urbanization in Odisha’s elephant landscape has virtually ravaged the traditional habitat corridors of heritage animals, bringing them into frequent conflict with humans.

- 

Of human origin, obstacles like irrigation canals, railway lines and highways meandering through their habitats and traditional migratory paths are hindering the giant animals’ migration and movement for food. All these factors have contributed towards the straying of elephants to places of human habitation, triggering man-elephant conflict, pointed out Biswajit Mohanty, a conservationist. Humans getting killed due to elephant attacks and fatalities from pachyderms are occurring in the state at alarming frequency as measures to arrest the trend are found wanting, he alleged. Odisha elephants have been prized as war elephants since ancient times, from Mahabharata to the Mughal era; they were even exported to South East Asia. However, the state has now turned into a gruesome graveyard for pachyderms for 10 years, he charged. The state is currently home to 2098 elephants as per the latest census of these animals, while in 1979 there were 2044 elephants, mostly confined to rich forested districts like Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Angul, Sundargarh and Cuttack. However, the elephant population has become stagnant though the elephants have scattered across 24 districts. The elephants originally from neighboring Jharkhand and West Bengal migrate to Odisha. In the pr