Gearing up to tackle jumbo problem

Orissa govt raising an army of trained elephants

The developments in Orissa ring a familiarity bell to most people in Karnataka.  Karnataka has been grappling with the problem of  elephants, which  repeatedly raid human habitats and inflict heavy damage on crops and property. The state has been struggling to deal with man-elephant conflict.

Hundreds of kilometres away, Orissa is also facing almost an identical problem and  it is getting worse by the day. The man-elephant conflict has become a major issue.

But there is a difference between Karnataka and Orissa. In Karnataka, the conflict is restricted to a few districts in the Malnad region whereas the problem is spread over  26 out of 30 revenue districts in Orissa. There is a cause for concern.

Besides inflicting heavy damage, the pachyderms have been killing people, rather
frequently.

The conflict has started pinching the state exchequer because of the compensation  to be paid to every human casualty as well as for the loss of properties and crops caused by the jumbo raids.   
 
Now, the Orissa government has come out with a unique idea to deal with the problem. It has decided to raise an army of about 50 “kunkis”(trained elephants for operations inside the jungles) that would help the forest department personnel to push back wild elephants when they stray and enter the human habitation in villages and towns on the periphery of the forests.  Significantly, the state capital Bhubaneswar and villages in and around also come under elephant attack frequently.

A similar problem exists in Karnataka also as elephants, stray mostly from Bannerghatta National Park and  destroy crops on the outskirts of Bangalore.  
  
“We will soon be raising a pool of about 50 kunkis to handle the man-elephant conflicts in different districts,” said Orissa Forest and Environment Minister Debi Prasad Mishra.


The minister has not given details as to from where his department would bring in 50 elephants for kunki training. However, official sources said the pool of elephants would include some which were already in the captivity in different districts and the rest from outside the state. “Efforts are on to bring in captured elephants from other states,” said a forest department official.   
 
The government, according to experts, may have to spend at least Rs 15 lakh on each elephant that would be purchased from outside the state. The Chandaka
forest near Bhubaneswar, which is already having an elephant sanctuary, has been
selected for training the 50 elephants. In fact, the training programme has already begun with the help of mahouts from within the state as well as from Assam who have been hired by the Orissa government.    

According to Chandaka forest division officials, four elephants have already been trained.  Two are undergoing training. Of the four trained elephants, two are already on the job in southern Orissa forests. Significantly, the Chandaka forest is all set to emerge as a major training centre for kunki elephants in the country.   

Interestingly, one of the two jumbos currently under training – Nandan – had remained chained for nearly nine years inside the Nandankanan zoo, near Bhubaneswar, after it killed the mahout.  

“We have already sent a proposal to the state government to set up a training
centre for elephants which would be exclusively used to handle operations inside the forests, including the tough task of keeping the wild elephants at a safe distance from human habitations,” said Chandaka Divisional Forest Officer A K Patnaik under whose supervision the elephant training programme was currently on.  
  
Many analysts feel that the government should step up its effort to implement the project as early as possible keeping in mind the rapidly deteriorating situation so far as human-pachyderm conflict in the state is concerned. According to official figures,  between 2001 and 2011, the human-jumbo fight had claimed lives of 75 elephants. This figure do not include the elephants killed by electrocution.

Similarly more than 500 people have already lost their lives in the last one decade. “At least 50 people die in the state every year in elephant attacks,” said a forest department official.  

The compensation amount paid by the government to those affected by the jumbo attacks stood at a whopping Rs 1, 29, 33,000.
   
The state administration’s grand plan to raise the “kunki army”, however, has not impressed wildlife experts and activists who feel that the government was only
indulging in “patch-up work” and was not keen on putting an end this problem.
   
“Instead of going for this type of patch-up work, the state government should look into the core issues to end the man-elephant conflict which, to some extent, was its own creation,” said Biswajit Mohanty, the secretary of Wildlife Society of Orissa, a non-governmental organisation.

In the past, the Orissa government had also attempted  an elephant translocation project with the help of  Karnataka Forest Department officials. That seemed to have not yielded the desired results.
    
Asked to elaborate, Mohanty said there are instances in Orissa in which the state government had gone for irrigation projects blocking elephant corridors. The jumbos are migratory animals and use their specific corridors to move from one forest to another. If their corridors were blocked then they stray from their path and enter human habitations.     

Similarly, there are also instances of government allowing mining projects near the wildlife sanctuaries having elephants. The mining activities do disturb the wild pachyderms and often force them to head towards nearby villages. “It will be better if the government addresses these problems first before raising the army of kunki
elephants”, concluded Mohanty.