Over 80 elephants killed every year due to human-elephant conflict

The main reasons of elephant deaths are electrocution, train accidents, poaching and poisoning, according to environment ministry data.

With increasing human-wildlife conflict, at least 80 elephants are killed every year in India on an average, totalling up to 655 deaths in the last eight years, environment ministry data showed.

The main reasons were electrocution, train accidents, poaching and poisoning.

The data comes just after the recently released Elephant Census 2017, which revealed that the population of Asian elephants—India's national heritage animal and an endangered and protected species—has declined in the last five years. As per the preliminary results of the Census, elephants numbered 27,312 across 23 states.

This means a decline of about 10% as the population has decreased by about 3,000, compared to the last census in 2012, when it was estimated at around 30,000 (29,391-30,711). In 2007, it was estimated at about 27,670 (27,657-27,682).

Also Read: India’s elephant population decreases by 10% to 27,312

According to environment ministry data seen by Mint, a total of 655 elephants were killed between 2009-10 and 2016-17. This translates into an average of about seven every month and one every four days.

Of them, poisoning killed 44, poaching 101, train accidents 120 and electrocution 390.

In the last eight years, the deadliest was 2010-11, when 106 were killed, followed by 105 in 2012-13 and 89 in 2009-10.

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