Before entering into a village, the pachyderms will first come across with the bees. As they are afraid of bees and don’t like bees’ buzzing sound, they wouldn’t attempt to enter the village.
Even if they try to enter the village, they would come in contact with the bee boxes, causing the bees to come out of the boxes. As the bees start attacking the herd, the jumbos would retreat.
The forest department and the State Khadi Board are implementing the project in the State.
On how the project will work, Handapa forester Subrat Kumar Satpathy said, “If a herd tries to enter into a village ignoring the boxes hung from trees, they would come in contact with the boxes. As a result, swarm of bees would come out of the boxes. Their buzzing sound is believed to drive the herd away from the village.”
The project has already been implemented in Handapa and Athamallik ranges of Athamallik division. In the first phase, as many as 100 boxes each have been kept at Laxmipur village of Handapa range and Rakhipur village of Athamallik range. Prior to putting the project to use, the villagers were given training on beekeeping.
“Elephant menace is at its worst in our area. People are at the end of their tether. I hope the project would go a long way in reducing man-elephant conflicts,” said Tapan Dehury, a resident of Athamallik forest division.
Echoing the same, Ranjit Dash, a resident of Angul forest division, said he is hopeful that people would return to agriculture once again.
“The project will not only contain the man-elephant conflicts but also help improve people’s financial condition through,” opined Prasanna Behera, an environmentalist.
If the project works as desired, it would be implemented in other areas of the State.
The situation continues to trigger man-animal conflicts on a massive scale in Odisha more than most states in the country. Not only casualties, but loss of property and crops are also the most discernible effects of these encounters.
With the Kharif season on high, several parts of Odisha have begun to witness incidents of wild elephant movement near human settlements.
Elephants on rampage on Odisha-Chhattisgarh border
A large herd of jumbos have strayed into human settlements in Raighar block of Nabarangpur district. The movement of elephants in the Sambalpur village of the block triggered panic in the area. As per sources, the group of pachyderms entered the village and caused extensive damage to maize cropfields. Informed, a team of forest staff led by Raighar Range Officer Sukumar Dukhu reached the spot to assess the situation. The elephants have reportedly returned back towards Chhattisgarh border.
Elephant Panic In Dhenkanal Village:-
A group of 32 elephants continue to roam the area nearby Haladia Bahal in Dhenkanal for past few days triggering panic among the natives. The herd was seen crossing the main road passing through the village which led to disruption in road communication.
Elephant Scare In Bolangir:-
Locals at Indupur, Kanheital and Larambar Dukudapada area under Patnagarh Range have also been losing sleep due to the movement of wild elephants in the area.
Hearing a petition filed by the Wildlife Society of Orissa, the Green Tribunal has asked the Chief Secretary, Odisha to issue a notification in this regard within two months of the order.
In the original application, dated 2016, the petitioner had sought the tribunal to direct the Odisha Forest Department to submit proposals for declaration and notification of 14 elephant corridors to the Central Government with further direction to the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to take immediate action and to issue draft notification, and thereafter a final notification on the 14 elephant corridors.
While hearing the application, the NGT had noted that as per the latest elephant census carried out by the State government in 2015, Odisha has the largest population of wild elephants in eastern India which stands at 1977. The State has three dedicated elephant reserves. However, it does not have any specialised corridors for the jumbos.
The NGT has quoted Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 while saying that elephant corridors being a part of the elephant ecology need to be prescribed and therefore, notified as ecological sensitive zones.
As per the NGT order copy, Odisha’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife)-cum-Chief Wildlife Warden presented details of the report identifying the 14 corridors in the State with a total area of 870.61 sq km. Later, the PCCF submitted a proposal to the Environment Department, Government of Odisha, in 2012 asking it to notify 14 traditional elephant corridors. However, till date no action has been taken, the NGT order mentioned.
The Asian Nature Conservation Foundation (ANCF) which was given the mandate to identify major and minor elephant corridors in the State of Odisha along with the work of assessing the habitat viability etc. and necessary action for notifying the elephant corridors, had submitted an action plan to the State government in this regard recommending implementation of various measures.
The deceased identified as Pramila Dehuri, had gone to her farmland in the morning when she was attacked by an elephant. The incident which was the second death being reported in the last one week due to elephant rampage in the region triggered outrage among the locals.
On the other hand, another woman at Madhabalua village under Sadangi range in Dhenkanal died in a similar incident. The woman was allegedly sweeping her courtyard when an elephant unexpectedly attacked her. Immediately after the incident, the officials of the forest department reached the spot and launched an investigation in connection with the incident.
The situation seems to have gotten worse at Gunia village at Koira, Sundargarh with locals alleging that a herd of 10 elephants have been venturing into human settlements in the area after swaying their tracks from the jungle.
The pachyderms have left heavy damage to several houses and agricultural lands. Villagers have demanded the forest officials to ward off the stray elephants into deep jungle and also provide them with compensation for their damaged property and land.
It may be noted that incidents of man-elephant conflicts had slowed in Odisha in recent weeks possibly due to lockdown imposed in the wake of Covid outbreak.
According to Wildlife Society of Odisha (WSO), wild elephants in Odisha have killed 527 people between April 2014 and March 2020. During the last six years, as many as 442 persons have sustained injuries during conflicts with wild jumbos during a total of 805 recorded incidents of encounters between humans and elephants, the statistics said.
Angul district with 22 deaths has recorded the highest number of human deaths last year due to conflicts with elephants. The State continued to witness just over 100 human-elephant encounters during the years of 2014, 2015 and 2016. But incidents of the man-elephant confrontation showed a steep rise to touch 204 during last year.
As many as 115 people were killed while 132 people injured during 2019-2020, the WSO data said.
(Edited by: Suryakant Jena)
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