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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  World Elephant Day: Govt’s jumbo bid to curb human-elephant conflicts in Bihar
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World Elephant Day: Govt’s jumbo bid to curb human-elephant conflicts in Bihar

Migrating elephants from Nepal and neighbouring West Bengal and Jharkhand are responsible for human-elephant conflicts in Bihar, resulting in loss of life and damage to property

The elephant was declared the national heritage animal in 2010 to scale up measures for its protection. Photo: ReutersPremium
The elephant was declared the national heritage animal in 2010 to scale up measures for its protection. Photo: Reuters

New Delhi: The Central government has asked West Bengal and Jharkhand to curb elephants from straying into neighbouring Bihar, where the jumbos have sometimes caused havoc.

According to the Bihar government, the state has no resident pachyderms of its own, but migrating jumbos from Nepal and neighbouring states have been responsible for human-elephant conflict in the eastern state, resulting in loss of life and damage to property.

The issue was taken up by an inter-state committee formed by the Central government last year for conservation of elephants. The committee includes chief wildlife wardens and officials of states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.

“After intensive discussions in the meetings, the chief wildlife wardens of the concerned states were asked to adopt various strategies and techniques to control human-elephant conflict in their states," said a senior official of the Union environment ministry, who did not want to be identified.

To address the problem of cross-border migration of elephants, the Indian government has been taking a series of steps. For instance, it held a dialogue with Bangladesh for trans-boundary conservation of elephants in August 2015.

During the meeting, a set of 17 recommendations, including allowing migration of elephants across international borders through identified corridors, were adopted.

The Indian government has already accepted these recommendations and requested the Bangladesh government to adopt them for effective conservation of elephants in the two countries.

The Union home ministry cleared a plan to set up elephant corridors on the India-Bangladesh border in January.

The elephant was declared the national heritage animal in 2010 to scale up measures for its protection. Even before that, in 1992, India started Project Elephant to protect the Asian elephant, its habitat and corridors and address man-elephant conflict.

The estimated global population of the Asian elephant, an endangered species, is anywhere between 41,000 and 52,000. Of that, around 29,300-30,700 elephants are in India alone, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

There are 28 elephant reserves across India at present, covering about 61,830 sq. km. But the man-elephant conflict has been increasing mainly because rapid industrialization, and urbanization is eroding the animal’s habitat.

At present, there are approximately 100 elephant corridors in the country.

According to the environment ministry estimates, a total of 1,218 people died due to human-elephant conflict in the last three years (2013-14 to 2015-16). On average, 400 elephants and 100 humans die every year due to human-elephant conflict.

The environment ministry has been taking a range of measures to control human-elephant conflict. For instance, in January 2015, it decided to follow the African model and erect bee and chilly fences to control conflict.

In May 2015, a panel was set up to study elephant migration, review elephant corridors and consider zoning of elephant corridors.

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Published: 12 Aug 2016, 04:46 PM IST
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