Elephant dies while being transported back to Srirangam from Pollachi

The elephant died when the truck reached Namakkal around 4am on Sunday. TRICHY: A more than 60 years old female elephant, owned by a man in Srirangam, died on Sunday morning while being brought back from Pollachi on a truck. The elephant, called Gulabi, was taken to Pollachi - situated more 200 km from Srirangam - on Friday for a wedding ceremony on Saturday.Animal activists said the owner of the elephant had sent the ailing animal to Pollachi for monitory gain, without caring about its health.

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Elephant electrocuted to death in Jharkhand

Ranchi, Dec 27 (IANS) An elephant died after being electrocuted in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district early on Thursday, officials said.

According to Forest Department officials, an elephant was roaming around Purchiasai village, trying to eat paddy kept in the field. It came in contact with an electric wire and died on the spot.

In November, a baby elephant had died, drowning in the pond.

Around 100 elephants are roaming around the district, destroying crops and at times trampling people.

--IANS

ns/mag/sed

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Elephant electrocuted to death in Jharkhand

An elephant died after being electrocuted in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district early on Thursday, officials said.

According to Forest Department officials, an elephant was roaming around Purchiasai village, trying to eat paddy kept in the field. It came in contact with an electric wire and died on the spot.

In November, a baby elephant had died, drowning in the pond.

Around 100 elephants are roaming around the district, destroying crops and at times trampling people.

--IANS ns/mag/sed

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In death on fence, a reminder: no easy solution to human-elephant conflict

Last week, an elephant died while trying to scale an iron fence in Nagarhole, Karnataka. When the fence was meant to separate elephants from human habitation, the tusker’s death underlined the difficulties in finding a win-win solution to human-elephant conflict where territories overlap.

Elephants are the most persecuted wildlife in India. They are large, need a lot of resources and move long distances to forage. The space they traditionally used is now crowded by people. Unwelcome on their erstwhile turf, elephants kill more people than any other wildlife. The herbivore does not come after people but raids their crop. The farmer’s narrow choice between life and livelihood leads to violent resistance.

The elephant that died had been on its way back to the forests after raiding the cropland adjacent to the tiger reserves’s Veeranahosalli range. In 2015, it was at Veeranahosalli where Karnataka launched its ambitious rail fence project to mitigate human-elephant conflict.

Costly oversight
While local foresters always kept a gate open for such retreating elephants, villagers possibly rushed the tusker. But the elephant could climb atop the fence only because its height was not raised even after an alarm was sounded last year.

In 2014, the state forest department decided to construct 10-foot-high permanent barriers with used railway tracks between farmland and elephant forests. In April 2017, however, sequential images of a large bull crossing a rail fence made headlines and the forest department acknowledged the necessity to build higher fences and also increase the height of the existing segments with a solar barrier on top.

It turns out that they forgot the oldest stretch. The Veeranahosalli segment of the rail fence was the pilot project, said Karnataka chief wildlife warden C Jayaram, where a 10-km stretch remained lower than the stretches constructed subsequently.

Right of passage
Elephant movements can be classified as daily and seasonal. Following rainfall patterns, they can move daily following a specific route in a seasonal migration. They may also move daily out of forest cover to raid adjacent cropland in the night and return before the sunrise.

Last August, when the Supreme Court ordered removal of 39 resorts to free an elephant corridor in the Nilgiri Hills, it was protecting the 22-km-long wildlife passageway that allows elephant movement between the Western (June-September monsoon) and the Eastern (October-January monsoon) Ghats.

Besides buildings, linear and other physical infrastructure is increasingly blocking or cutting across such corridors all over the country. Of 100-odd identified elephant corridors in India, at least 70 are left with a width of 1 km or less. Loss of these passages will isolate populations and reduce their genetic viability.

Daily local raids, on the other hand, is a question of immediate survival on both sides. Elephants must eat and farmers must save their crop. It is rarely a forest famine that drives forest elephants to raid farmland; manmade food is more nutritious (and perhaps tastier) and thus allows a herd to cut down on foraging time and save energy.

Since cutting access to farmland is unlikely to starve forest elephants, the strategy has been to build barriers such as solar fences and elephant-proof trenches. But elephants find their way around these high-maintenance obstacles. They fill trenches with mud and use logs to avoid touching powered wires.

In the absence of any effective deterrence, farmers use a range of ad hoc means — from relatively harmless bursting of crackers to extreme practices such as throwing fire torches or burning tyres on the animals. They also electrocute and poison elephants.

Therefore, sturdy rail fences were proposed as a lasting solution.

Fencing shortcomings
It helped that the gaps between the rails allowed movement of other wildlife and even let people access forest produce. But the fence was not designed in a way that discouraged misadventures such as climbing over, squeezing through or sliding beneath that could endanger an elephant.

Besides, the fences are being put up in high-rainfall areas and, like other barriers, may need substantial maintenance as earth sinks. But unlike construction, maintenance is more about rigour than funds which makes it a thankless job.

A rail fence cannot work with elephants on both sides. That is what happened the night the tusker died. As long as the fencing project is implemented piecemeal, elephants will use the unfenced stretches to venture out only to find themselves fenced out. Worse, drawing any elephant line in areas with scattered herds will only aggravate conflict.

It may be less complicated to plan for places where elephants live in entirely non-forested areas and depend solely on private resources. But building an extended fence to ensure no spillover takes place in the future and simultaneously relocating all the animals from private land will be exorbitant. A fight over who would control the funds is apparently why such a project is yet to take off in Karnataka’s Hassan district.

What alternative?
Many activists and conservationists harp on letting the elephant be. The proposition is wishful. It will take a lot more than removing spikes (elephants are smart enough to avoid those anyway) or banning flame throwing to ensure a less violent coexistence. It will require people to surrender space to elephants.

Compensating the farmer at market rates for crop loss may reduce his desperation but a lack of resistance will invite more elephants to cropland and keep expanding the conflict zone. Allowing the elephant a free run has immense economic (and safety) implications and authorities are unlikely to even consider those.

In such a scenario, conservation’s best bet is perhaps to free up the elephant’s seasonal corridors and minimise human-elephant interface through non-violent means. To that effect, robust and effective barriers demand serious studies in efficacy and fine-tuning, not the stigma of an elephant-killer.

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Adult tusker dies of intestinal worms

Erode: An adult tusker was found dead in the reserve forest in the district on Wednesday. Forest officials said the tusker died due to intestinal worms.

The carcass of the elephant was found by forest staff during their routine patrol in Chellampalayam beat of South Bargur reserve forest area near Andhiyur on Wednesday. They informed the senior officials, who visited the spot and conducted inquiries.

Later, an autopsy was performed and it revealed that the elephant died to intestinal infections. The carcass was left behind for other wild animals to feed on, said a forest officer.

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Juvenile tusker found lying dead in Satkoshia forest

Angul, Nov 23 (UNI) There is no end of elephant death in Angul
district with
one more death reported from Jilinda range of Satkosia wild life
division last
night.

A six year old juvenile tusker was found dead in the Judum Reserve
forest
about 3 km away from Bankadhar village under Jilinda range.

His two small tusks were found intact. Forest officials who rushed to
the spot
said the elephant died a natural death after being away from a herd.

His postmortem was conducted today.
“We rushed to spot after being informed that a tusker died in the jungle and
it appears that a six year old tusker of five feet height who had been out of the
herd for some time died in the forest."
It might have died a natural death due to ill health as there is no evidence of
any foul play behind its death,. Assistant conservator of forest RK swain said
adding that we are waiting for the post mortem report to arrive at the conclusion’.

Some days ago an adult tusker died in Handapa range of Athmallick division
after coming into contact with live wire that was laid by some poachers to prey wild boars.

Earlier in the month another tusker was killed in Khamar jungle by poachers
and its two tusks were taken away by the poachers. Forest officials are still to
lay their hands on the elusive poachers. UNI XC BD BM

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India's economic boom is killing elephants: Coordination at all levels is key to keeping pachyderms safe

Even as India makes giant strides to upgrade its economy and infrastructure at breakneck speed, it is the environment that's paying the price particularly its wild animals. The elephant is no different as hordes of them die in different circumstances as the burgeoning human population and the facilities they use shrink the space for elephants.

On 15 November, an elephant died after coming in contact with a high tension powerline at Sansaraposi village in Mayurbhanj district’s of Odisha. The sad news comes in just after a few days of a similar incident which claimed lives of seven pachyderms in the state. On 26 October, a herd of seven elephants was moving towards a canal from a nearby paddy field when it came in contact of a sagging 11-KV power line in the Dhenkanal forest range. This was the highest casualty of elephants reported in a single incident.

While fingers are often pointed at the forest department, the onus of this kind of incidents doesn’t lie with it alone. The failure of the power department to act despite several reminders from the forest department to fix a hanging transmission line cannot be ignored here. As per the Indian Electricity Rules (1956) and Rule 58 of Central Electricity Authority’s Regulations 2010, the height of overhead line should be no less than 4.6 meters and for high voltage lines over 11,000 volts, it should be 5.2 meters. The average height at the shoulder of an Indian or Asian elephant is between 2 to 3.5 metres. Had the power department responded to the call with alacrity such a tragic outcome could have been prevented.

Biswajit Mohanty of Wildlife Society of Odisha is extremely upset with these deaths. He said, “We have done various surveys before the October incident and have written several letters to the power department about the sagging power line in Dhenkanal district. But it was of no use. The electrical company (CESU) is not working in compliance with the Indian Electricity Rules (1956). Last Sunday also, we have done a survey and still there are a lot of sagging lines which can become a reason for another accident in the district."

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Assam: Human-elephant conflict claims two lives in Udalguri

The man-elephant conflict refuses to die down in the Indo-Bhutan border villages of Udalguri district.

In yet another incident, two people were trampled to death by a loner wild jumbo at 1 No. Segunbari under Paneri PS in Udalguri district at about 7. 45 am on Monday morning.

The victims were identified as Kamil Ekka(60) and Pradhan Murmu(70). The jumbo also attacked another person Ram Kunar Gaur(37) leaving him critically injured.

According to locals, the two people who were trampled were chatting at the verandah of Kamil Ekka when a jumbo suddenly raided his place trampling him to death.

The other two injured were rushed to Udalguri Civil Hospital. One of them Pradhan Murmu succumbed to his injuries and Ram Kumar Gaur is being treated.

The incident has cast a pall of gloom in the neighbouring villages.

The irked locals have blamed the forest department about the lack of co-ordination to chase away jumbo herds which frequent the villages in the post-harvesting season.

It is to be mentioned that a total of 17 humans and 4 elephants have died prematurely due to the man-elephant conflict.

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Elephant Deaths In Odisha: Maneka Urges CM Naveen To Take Measures

New Delhi: Expressing grief over the elephant deaths in Odisha, Union Minister of Women & Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, has urged Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take urgent measures for the safety and welfare of the pachyderms.

In a letter to the Odisha CM, Maneka wrote: “The recent electrocution of seven tuskers in Dhenkanal, which is the highest such death toll in a single incident, has caused furore throughout the nation about the reprehensible state of elephant protection in Odisha.”

“It comes at the back of dismal statistics wherein 124 or a whopping 28 per cent casualty has taken place due to accidents and electrocution. It is tragic to note that a dozen magnificent pachyderms are dying every year due to mismanagement and in coordination between government agencies,” Maneka added.

The Union Minister while citing reports alleged that distribution companies are being given a free hand in elephant corridors without necessary oversight.

In the letter, the Maneka also mentioned that the National Green Tribunal has imposed a fine Rs 1 crore on CESU while a probe has been launched into the Dhenkanal incident.

Expressing her disappointment on the elephants’ death, the Union Minister said that even after laying guidelines under the AK Biswal committee by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the alarming trend of elephant deaths goes unabated.

“I also urge you to take necessary action against the officials who failed to put the AK Biswal Committee recommendations into practice in the State,” Maneka wrote.

Terming the elephants of Odisha as ‘the pride of India’, she wrote, “We owe a debt to our future generations for their welfare and safety.”

On October 22, seven elephants had died due to electrocution under Dhenkanal Sadar forest range. Similarly, on September 5, two elephants had died after being electrocuted in Jajpur district.

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Elephant Calf Falls To Death

A five-month-old female elephant calf fell to death in Cumbum east range of the Meghamalai Forest Range in Theni district on Friday.

The carcass of the elephant calf was found on Friday by the officials of the Forest Department around 6 p.m in the Surulipatti north beat. The location is said to be close to Kailasanathar cave.

D. Dinesh, Forest Range Officer (Cumbum east), said the elephant was said to be grazing on the field along with its mother. “It has been raining heavily for the last two days, making the ground very slippery. The calf may have wandered close to the mother, but slipped into a 10-foot ditch and broke its spinal cord. It also twisted its neck,” he said.

He added that the elephant died on the spot. Since the carcass was spotted in the evening, forest officials could not act immediately and perform the post-mortem. On Saturday, the corpse was autopsied by forest veterinary surgeon K. Selvam from Narayanadevanpatti. The remains were later buried nearby, said Mr. Dinesh.

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Male elephant found dead

Chittoor: A male elephant was found dead in a forest close to Netteri village in Bangarupalem mandal on Sunday night, according to T Chakrapani, Divisional Forest Officer (Chittoor). Speaking to the media here on Monday, the DFO said the villagers have found the dead tusker in a mango garden and informed the forest officials.



“After performing a post-mortem, it came to know that elephant died due to severe indigestion. No human fault was identified behind the death of the 25-year-old jumbo,” he stated.

Chakrapani has revealed that more than 34 elephants wandering in the Palamaner forest range in four herds. The DFO further said that forest staff are making serious efforts to restrict the movement of the elephants by digging the trenches around the forest boundaries.


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Cow elephant dies after collision with lorry in Kota Tinggi

JOHOR BARU: A wild cow elephant died after it was hit by a lorry at Batu 13 Jalan Mersing-Kota Tinggi, near the Panti Forest Reserve near Kota Tinggi early today.

Director of the Johor Department of Wildlife, Jamalun Nasir Ibrahim, said the department was informed of the incident which occurred at about 2am by the lorry driver.

He said based on early information obtained of the incident, it was believed to have occurred after the lorry driver, who was travelling from Kota Tinggi to Mersing, suddenly switched on the high beam headlights when he came across a herd of four elephants crossing the road from the direction of an estate near the forest reserve.

“One of the elephants was startled and turned back towards the estate and was hit by a lorry which was travelling from Terengganu to Singapore.

“Following the collision, the elephant which was less than 10 years old, died at the scene due to serious injuries to the head,” Jamalun Nasir said when contacted today.

He said the department had moved the carcass of the elephant from the scene and buried it.

He advised all drivers not to provoke animals in the area by honking and turning on the high beam lights to not startle or provoke them. Meanwhile, Kota Tinggi District Police Chief Supt Ahsmon Bajah, when contacted, confirmed receiving a report of the incident. and said the lorry driver did not suffer any injuries.


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Wild elephant dies of intestinal worms

A 25-year-old female elephant was found dead at Athanithumukkal forest area in Andhiyur forest division in Erode district on Tuesday. According to forest officials, the elephant died of intestinal worms.

“The elephant had been suffering from intestinal worms and it had stopped eating. Subsequently, its health had deteriorated,” said a forest official.

Earlier in the day, local residents spotted the carcass and alerted the forest officials. Veterinarians attached to the district forest office were brought to perform the autopsy.

“It is normal for elephants to have roundworms in intestines. But when the situation aggravates, elephants stop taking food,” said a forest veterinarian.

After the postmortem, the carcass was buried in the forest.


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Sound Of Bees To Keep Elephants Off Rail Tracks Creating A Buzz

Guwahati: The sound of honeybees downloaded from the internet to keep elephants away from railway tracks has created quite a buzz after the novel idea introduced by the Northeast Frontier Railway or NFR brought down the number of accidents.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has this system in place across four of its divisions at select level crossings where elephant zones exist.

The idea was implemented in late 2017 and this year only six elephants have died after colliding with a train. In 2013, the number of elephants killed was 19, in 2014 it was 5, in 2015, it was 12, in 2016, it was 9, while in 2017, it was 10.

"We installed this in Rangiya division and once it was successful we have installed it in other locations as well. This was started barely six months back," said Lokesh Narayan, Additional General Manager, NFR.

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Elephant attacks in Odisha district kill 6

Six persons, including one woman, have been killed by marauding elephants in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district since April 10. Among them is a 70-year-old attacked on Saturday morning, when she had gone out to answer nature’s call, in the Kaurianpal village of the Sadar range.

Sources said that affected villagers in the interior pockets are turning restless as human casualties rise. “The Sadar range of Dhenkanal district is now the most elephant conflict-prone area in the State, probably in the country. This area is home to over 25 elephants, with another group of over 40 elephants coming in intermittently from adjoining ranges,” said Biswajit Mohanty, an environmentalist.

There were 10 elephant-human encounters in which four persons were killed and eight were injured in April 2017 in this range.

“Elephants are disturbed due to obstructions such as the Rengali irrigation canal network, the National Highway... and the frequent movement of trucks in and out of industries and quarries. No sincere effort is being taken by the State Forest Department to inform people about the movement of elephants in advance,” alleged Mr. Mohanty.

According to Ranjit Patnaik, a wildlife researcher, in 2017, the human-elephant encounters in Odisha touched a record high of 120, and 85 people were killed by elephants.

“As far as the Dhenkanal district is concerned, 53 elephants have died in the past four years while 61 persons have been killed by jumbos. Human-elephant encounters are increasing sharply in the district,” said Mr. Patnaik.

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Elephant hit by train dies

An elephant died after it was hit by a train in Lalkuan in Nainital district on Sunday. This is the second jumbo death on railway tracks in less than a month. Earlier, a tusker was killed after being hit by the Nanda Devi Express inside the Rajaji Tiger Reserve in February.
The death had prompted the state forest department to prepare a set of proposals to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks between Haridwar and Dehradun. These included having forest guards onboard to alert locopilots, increasing patrolling time near tracks and taking steps for better coordination between forest staff and railway officials.

The tusker who died on Sunday was likely hit by the locomotive early morning. Parag Madhukar Dhakate, conservator of forests, western circle, Kumaon, said, “The deceased elephant is a 10-year-old male. We are investigating whether the train was following the prescribed speed.” The state forest department said that this was the 10th elephant to be hit by a train in the past 17 years in the state.

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Elephant, stuck in pit, dies

An elephant, believed to be less than eight-years-old, died after getting stuck in a sewage pit inside a private resort built along the notified elephant corridor in Bokkapuram on Thursday. Forest officials said that the elephant got stuck in the sewage pit at the 'Wild Inn Resort' in Bokkapuram, in the Singara Forest Range in the Nilgiris North Forest Division on late Wednesday night. Local residents said that they could hear the piercing screams of the young elephant more than 1 km away.

But the resort management failed to inform the forest department of the incident till Thursday morning, by which time the animal died. S.

Kanthan, Singara Forest Range Officer, said that the elephant got stuck into the sewage pit after a cement block used to cover it caved in when the animal stood over it. It managed to climb out but one of its hind legs got stuck inside. The incident has brought to focus the problems created by ‘illegal’ resorts on wildlife in the area. S.

Jayachandran, joint secretary of the Tamil Nadu Green Movement, said that only two resorts in the area had license to operate, and that the others, including the resort where the elephant died, was functioning without permission. “We expect strong action, including the arrest of the resort owners for their negligence in causing the death of the elephant,” he added. S.

Kalanidhi, District Forest Officer, Nilgiris North Division, said that a case has been registered. “We will act against the concerned persons once we have fixed culpability, and after the completion of a post-mortem examination of the elephant,” he said. Forest department staff spent an entire day trying to figure out how to extricate the carcass of the elephant from the sewage pit, and decided to use an earth mover to pull the carcass out..

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Elephant dies due to starvation after being stuck in pond

Kodagu (Karnataka), Mar 18 (ANI): An elephant in Karnataka?s Kodagu died due to starvation after it got stuck in the pond for more than 12 hours. The forest officials had arrived to rescue the tusker, however, due to starvation; the creature couldn't survive for long.

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