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Odisha tops the country in human-jumbo face-offs. The State has been recording the highest toll in the human-elephant encounters for the last two consecutive years.
As per data available with the Odisha government, the State, after recording the highest ever human toll of 117 in the year 2019-20, had recorded around 82 human casualties in face-offs with the giant mammal in the year 2020-21. Odisha has figured consistently among the top-5 states in the country for incurring maximum human casualties owing to jumbo aggression till 2017-18. But now it is helming the list.
The State alone is bearing nearly 21 per cent of human lives lost in man-elephant in the country when it accounts for only around 7.2 percent of the country's elephant population. This disproportionate number drive home the scale of man-elephant encounter enormity in Odisha.
The Good: Despite higher human casualties and heavy crop loss, retaliatory deaths of elephants by means of poisoning in Odisha has been nil for the last eight consecutive years (2015-21).
Frontline Districts
As per the data available, three districts, namely Mayurbhanj, Sundergarh and Baleswar, have basically borne the brunt of the jumbo-man conflict.
As per experts, the reason behind this is these districts share the elephant corridors with West Bengal and Jharkhand, on which elephants were moving for ages, and the State government report attributed such elephant–human conflicts to fragmentation of forests and increased encroaching of areas in the elephant corridors by the human population.
Need Of The Hour
Ground reports show villagers in the three districts implement traditional methods like fire burning etc. to ward off the jumbo menace. As per the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), there is a permanent solution to such conflicts.
But for that, Odisha Forest Department has to join hands with the State Agriculture Department. It says, only Agriculture Department can intervene in crop-growing patterns in the villages on the elephant corridors, and bring up bio-fences to dissuade jumbos preying on paddy or horticulture crops.
As per WTI, bringing up active bio-fences will work wonders for both the animal and man. It observed, "Either farmers there may be persuaded to change the crops sown from paddy to cash crops like chilli and ginger or cultivate a bio-fence by way of building up what is called a ‘living perimeter’ around the paddy crops to keep the big mammal at bay."
The WTI further added that since the first option has a bearing on the food security of the populace, bringing up a living perimeter surrounding the habitations and farmlands by cultivating chilli, citrus and beehives is the only perfect solution.
The Wonder Called Bio Fence
It is the thorns, bee stings or the capsaicin smell that keeps the pachyderms at bay. Many high elephant density states like Assam and other north-eastern states have implemented this strategy successfully. Time for Odisha to take a leaf out of the northeast success story.
