Electrocution, poisoning, and train hits the major causes of elephant deaths in Assam

Recent elephant deaths from human causes has once again brought the focus on the plight of wild elephants in Assam

Electrocution, poisoning and train hits have been identified as the major causes of over 200 deaths of elephants in the past five years in Assam.

According to data available with the state forest department and NGOs, out of the 212 elephant deaths reported since 2017, 52 died due to electrocution. At least 26 jumbos died in train hits, while another 18 died after being allegedly poisoned by villagers during the same period.

Although the official reason of death of the remaining 107 elephants remains unknown, NGOs suspect electrocution and poisoning. Sources in the NGOs say that wild elephants, in their movement outside of the forests while foraging for food, destroy crops and villagers use electricity lines and resort to poisoning to kill the elephants.

Reported deaths of at least 12 wild elephants, mainly due to poisoning, electrocution and train hits since January has once again brought the focus on the plight of wild elephants in Assam, where the problem of human-elephant conflicts has taken a serious turn over the years.

“This has become a concern,” a forest department official admitted.

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The deaths of three wild elephants including a calf on the night of October 9 in Jorhat district after being hit by a Rajdhani Express, triggered anger among wildlife conservation groups. Railways said they imposed speed limits and had taken several other steps to prevent similar deaths. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who convened a meeting following the October 9 deaths, asked the Northeast Frontier Railway to take help of the latest technology to prevent elephant death on train tracks.

More than 400 people have also died in attacks by wild jumbos since 2017.

“Habitat loss due to destruction of forests is the main reason for conflict resulting in the death of both elephants and humans. Linear infrastructure development also cut across many prime habitats creating gaps in traditional elephant corridors that herds used for hundreds of years to satisfy their needs,” Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, CEO of Aaranyak, a biodiversity conservation group in Assam, told DH.

“But we have failed to address the issue because we have followed only a short-term or ad-hoc approach instead of a long-term and feasible solution,” he explained.

“The problem has turned serious in Nagaon, Sonitpur and nearby areas mainly due to destruction of forests in Karbi Anglong Hills. We must try to restore the habitats and plant non-invasive grasses inside forests to prevent the jumbos from venturing out of the jungles,” said Dulu Bora, an activist in central Assam’s Nagaon district, one of the many human-animal conflict zones in the state.

“Since 2018, we have motivated villagers at Hathikhuli Ronghang areas to plant paddy in some portion of land and reserve those for wild elephants. This has reduced the jumbo conflict to a large extent. This year, too, the farmers have planted paddy in 600 bigha of land for the elephants. Similar action in some areas near Nambor reserve forest in Numaligarh has also helped,” Bora said.

With 5,719 wild elephants (as per 2017 Census), Assam houses the second highest number of wild elephants after Karnataka (6,049). Assam forest minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said on Tuesday that the state government has set a target to increase the forest cover from 36 per cent to 38 per cent, in order to tackle climate change impact and to reduce human-animal conflicts.