BHUBANESWAR: With over 100 elephant deaths and 171 human casualties between April 2024 and March 2025, man-animal conflict in the state has only worsened with time, the annual Odisha Wildlife-2025 report has revealed.
The report by the state government released on Thursday stated that as many as 106 elephants perished in the state in 2024-25, making it the highest casualty in a year in last one decade, since 2015-16. The deaths reported in 2024-25 is also 62 per cent more than the previous year when the number was 66.
As per the report, 30 elephants were killed in deliberate electrocution while four died in retaliatory killing last year. The Forest Department has no clue about death of another 17 elephants during the period.
In last one-decade between 2015-16 and 2024-25, 842 elephants died in the state which included 111 in deliberate electrocution, 44 in accidental electrocution, 231 in diseases and 29 each in train accidents and poaching. Only 87 have died naturally, while another 231 have been killed due to infighting, stampede, falling down from hill, lightning and stroke, etc.
The report also presented a grim picture of human casualties and crop damage in the man-animal conflict. As many as 171 people were killed in wildlife attacks in 2024-25, which included 153 in elephant attack. Around 500 people also sustained injuries in wild animal attacks in the year. Similarly, 12,337 farmers sustained crop damage over a total area of over 2,905 acre, one of the highest in the last 10 years.
The report indicated that on an average 74,350 people were affected in human-wildlife conflict in 2024-25 compared to 42,771 in 2015-16. The average of people getting impacted in man-animal conflict in the state in last 10 years also stands at a staggering 50,647.
While the statistics raise apprehension over the preventive measures put in place to bring down the conflict scenario in the state, wildlife officials said steps are being taken to contain it through appropriate interventions.
PCCF wildlife Prem Kumar Jha said a number of measures have been initiated this year to bring down incidence of conflict in forest fringe villages and more compassionate grants have been disbursed to the families of the victims and farmers under Anukampa scheme.
Forest authorities said Odisha has also hiked the compensation for death in wild animal attack from existing `6 lakh to `10 lakh, while Anukampa 2.0 was launched in June this year to speed up disbursement of compassionate grant to farmers suffering crop loss.
Besides, from 1,177 villages in 2022-23, the number of villages covered under Gaja Sathi scheme to prevent human-elephant conflict has been increased to 2,142 in 2024-25, the officials said.
