BHUBANESWAR: As many as 68 people have been killed in human-wildlife conflicts so far this year, said Forest and Environment minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia in the Assembly on Tuesday.
Replying to a question by BJD legislator Arun Kumar Sahoo, the minister said, 1,087 houses have been damaged while crop damage has also been reported over 2,315 acre in the current year.
The minister said, 14 people have been killed in wild animal attack in the Dhenkanal forest division, while eight such deaths have been reported so far from Keonjhar forest division.
Similarly, six persons each have died in human-wildlife conflict in Bonai and Rourkela forest divisions and five in the Angul forest division. Both Athagarh and Baripada divisions have reported four human deaths each.
Singhkhuntia said the state government has so far received 9,168 complaints seeking compensation for the loss incurred due to elephants and other wild animals. The government has sanctioned compensation of Rs 51.92 crore, of which Rs 4.19 crore has been distributed to the affected families and Rs 99.58 lakh is yet to be distributed.
To minimise human-wildlife conflict, he said, state government has initiated steps for roll out of artificial intelligence (AI) based e-surveillance project in the state. The project will be piloted first in Bharatpur section of Chandaka forest division, Hindol range of Dhenkanal division and Bantala in Angul division.
The advanced surveillance mechanism will help forest authorities in sending advance alerts to human habitations near forests about wild animal movement to check conflict.