GUWAHATI: Wildlife activists and conservationists are deeply concerned over 11 wild elephants killed in Assam in the past seven days.
The deaths occurred in different parts of the state. The pachyderms, in some cases, died after being hit by speeding trains, while the others died of suspected deliberate electrocution besides food poisoning.
“God in distress! One more elephant death reported from Dehing Patkai, this morning. We lost 11 wild #elephants in seven days. As winter approaches, there is likely increase of human-elephant interactions in crop fields. Are we prepared for timely action to check the menace?” Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, who is the secretary-general and CEO of biodiversity and conservation research organisation Aaranyak, tweeted on the latest incident.
On Sunday midnight, a female elephant and her calf were killed after being hit by the Rajdhani Express. Another sub-adult elephant, which was injured in the incident, succumbed to injuries two days later.
Talukdar told this newspaper on Friday the increasing deaths of the animal were a matter of grave concern.
“If 11 elephants died in one week, it means action is missing on the ground. The possibility of train hits increases during winter which is approaching,” he said.
The conservationist insisted on proactive measures. If people are compensated for the destruction of their crops, incidents of human-elephant conflicts will get decreased, he said.
He asked the authorities why no FIR is lodged when an elephant gets killed in an incident of deliberate electrocution or poisoning.
“If action is taken promptly, people will be afraid. And not just the forest department, even the police can take action since the incidents occur in civil areas. We need a concerted effort,” Talukdar said.
“We worship the elephant and call it our national heritage animal. But there will hardly be any reaction when an elephant gets killed. A rhino (of the Kaziranga National Park) was hit by a truck the other day and there was a widespread reaction,” he added.
Well-known elephant expert Kaushik Barua said it was time to re-look into the state’s awareness programmes and mitigation measures.
“Mitigation of human-elephant conflict – be it train hits, electrocution or poisoning – is a major conservation issue and needs to be given top priority or else, we might witness more such occurrences in the days to come,” Barua cautioned.