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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Sterilization to control elephant population?
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Sterilization to control elephant population?

Environment ministry proposes to start the experiment in West Bengal and Odisha, where human-elephant conflict has become a serious problem

More than 100 elephants and 400 humans die every year due to human-elephant conflict. Photo: Mohd. Zakir/HTPremium
More than 100 elephants and 400 humans die every year due to human-elephant conflict. Photo: Mohd. Zakir/HT

New Delhi: Unable to check conflicts between humans and elephants that cause the deaths of more than 100 elephants and 400 humans every year, the environment ministry is now proposing to inject female elephants with contraceptive vaccine—in order to control their population in the wild.

The ministry is proposing to start the experiment in West Bengal and Odisha, where human-elephant conflict has become a serious problem.

“Immuno-contraception is a technique of contraception which induces hormonal changes in female elephants. So far, this technique has not been tried on Asian elephants but the model has been quite successful in African elephants," said a senior environment ministry official, who did not want to be named.

The environment ministry is expected to make the contraceptive vaccines proposal in an affidavit it is scheduled to file in the Supreme Court in the next couple of days. The ministry will need a go-ahead from the Supreme Court to implement the plan as the court is hearing a case on elephant deaths at railway crossings.

“The proposal is to first start this in West Bengal and Odisha before it is repeated in other parts of the country," the official added. The official explained that the technique does not manipulate gender hormones and has no physical or behavioural side effects.

“The vaccines are reversible and have no deleterious effect on animals and their behavioural patterns. The vaccines will be administered using darts and at no stage requires target animals to be caught or immobilized. The technique that would be used in India would require one shot of the vaccine which will last for more than two years," the official added.

According to the environment ministry, between 2010-11 to 2014-15, every year on an average, 116 elephants and 147 humans died in West Bengal and Odisha alone due to human-elephant conflict. The conflict also resulted in injuries to at least 200 humans, damage to around 5,000 houses and crop damage in around 30,000 acres.

Indian authorities have also tried methods such as digging elephant trenches, solar powered electric fences, and chilli, beehive and tobacco fences but met with limited success.

According to the environment ministry, in 2012, India was home to between 29,391 and 30,711 elephants.

India has 26 elephant reserves covering about 60,000 sq. km but these animals are threatened by habitat loss, and shrinkage and degradation of their range.

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Published: 15 Oct 2015, 12:50 AM IST
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