Odisha radio-collars third ‘problematic’ elephant out of 18 identified

With incidents of man-elephant conflict on the rise, the Odisha government has planned to adopt a multi-pronged strategy including tagging radio collars on problematic wild tuskers.

As per the planning, a wild tusker in the Bonai area under the Sundargarh Forest Division was successfully collared on Wednesday.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Wildlife in Odisha Susanta Nanda informed about the development by posting a picture of the radio collared tusker over social media platform X (earlier known as Twitter).

“As part of managing human-elephant conflicts, the wildlife wing started tracking the problematic elephants this year after radio collaring them. The third one to be successfully collared today. Well done team,” posted Nanda.

Following the path-breaking experiments of radio-collaring two problematic tuskers at Angul-Palalhara and Khordha Forest Divisions, the third tusker could be radio-collared at Bonai.

As per reports, there are currently as many as 18 problematic wild tuskers in Odisha who have a track record of killing human beings and breaking houses by straying into human habitats. 

According to forest officials, the radio collaring will help track and monitor the movement of the wild tuskers for its post-treatment observation as well as to monitor their behaviours. The move will also help track the elephant in areas with human-elephant conflict, so that timely action could be taken to prevent any such conflict. Further, the injured elephant, which would have been vulnerable to poaching will now be easier to track its movement to prevent any untoward event.

“We have identified 18 problematic wild tuskers from the last census and permission has been given to DFOs to monitor their movements by radio-collaring them. These elephants have a track record of either killing human beings or breaking houses by straying into human habitats. We will monitor their movements for 24 hours by radio-collaring them,” said PCCCF Susanta Nanda.

“When the tuskers come near villages, the villagers will be warned much before the arrival of the elephants. If their behaviours don’t improve, we will tranquillize them by tracking their locations. They will be carried to the elephant camps or Elephant care centres,” he added.