Pachyderms create havoc in human habitat

Guwahati, Nov 26 (UNI) About ten persons including two infants were trampled to death in the state so far this year in the man-elephant conflict.

Irreparable destruction caused to elephant migration corridors over the years had forced the pachyderms to stray on to human habitats more often, sources said.

The problem aggravated after a herd of wild elephants trampled to death four persons, a couple and their two kids, at Jamugurihat in Sonitpur district on November 18, sources said.

Another person at Hatigarh Tea Estate in Udalguri district also died similarly the same day, sources added.

The state wildlife department officials said all the four deceased were killed by a single elephant, which had been declared rogue.

A highly placed source in the department informed that an order was issued to shoot down the rogue elephant.

Every year news of death caused by wild elephants hit the headlines during this period, when the pachyderms come out of the wild in herds to feast on the ripe paddy.

The state wildlife department is yet to device a way to tackle the elephant menace as the Wildlife Protection Act does not allow the personnels in the department to get harsh with the wild elephants and they could not be captured without the Centre's permission.

The wildlife staff could only chase away the herds from the human habitats by bursting crackers, but this had also not served the problem.

The elephant menace is basically attributed to increase in elephant population while forest cover was dwindling, department sources said adding the prohibition on capturing the elephants had also led to increase in their population.

At the same time encroachment on forest areas and deforestation have precipitated conflicts between the man and the beast due to the fragmentation of elephant migration corridors in the state.

There are about 5500 elephants in the state with total notified wildlife protection area of about 2500 square kilometer, official sources said.

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