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Elephant runs amok in Odisha town, forest officials on alert
The Odisha government in January last year came up with a ‘comprehensive action plan for conservation of elephants and mitigation of human-elephant conflict’
An adult tusker strayed away from a herd from the Similipal tiger reserve of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district and ran amok in Baripada town on Thursday.
Officials in Baripada town said the tusker entered the compound of MKC High School in the town, breaking its boundary wall and started running around the school campus. A few hours later, it started running on the streets, kicking motorcycles parked around as people started running for cover, said Baripada DFO Santosh Joshi.
“We have been trying to tranquilise the tusker. But as it has been running too wildly, it is becoming difficult to get a clear shot,” an official said, expressing concern that the elephant may harm people who have congregated near a river flowing through the town.
Wildlife conservationist Biswajit Mohanty said the forest department has failed to bring down the human-elephant conflict.
“In the last three years, we have witnessed approximately at least one human-elephant conflict every two days, and a human has got killed every three days. Such a high number of human casualties and at such frequency was recorded in the past. In the last nine-and-a-half months, 136 people have been killed due to elephant attacks in more than 200 encounters,” Mohanty said.
The Odisha government in January last year came up with a ‘comprehensive action plan for conservation of elephants and mitigation of human-elephant conflict’, dividing the state to several zones for maintaining a long-term viable population of 1,700-1,800 tuskers in the state.
