429 Elephants Killed in India in Past 10 Years By Poachers

In the last 10 years, India has been witness to the loss of a huge number of elephants killed. In fact, the number is as huge as 429 and they have all been lost to poaching, the Government of India has revealed. The government has responded to a RTI (Right to Information) question to the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, which comes under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The wildlife agency has further said that during this exact period, as many as 642 poachers had been apprehended from the various parts of the country for the elephants killed.

The RTI query was filed by Ranjan Tomar, who is a Noida based lawyer. He sought state wise data about the total number of elephants that have been slaughtered by poachers in the past 10 years along with information on the number of offenders arrested. The data also showed that the state, in which the highest number of elephants was killed during the period, was Kerala at 136.

The are several other states which showed a high number of elephants that were killed and they are as follows: West Bengal, 48; Karnataka, 46; Tamil Nadu, 44; and Odisha, 41. However, the good news is that there are states where not a single pachyderm was neutralized. The list of those states is as follows: Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Punjab, Telangana, Daman and Diu; and Dadra and Nagar Haveli for the time period that we have been talking about. On the other hand, Tripura registered just one elephant killing due to the poachers.

The government information also shows the number of pachyderms poached has come down sharply in the past 10 years from 53 in the year 2008 to just 5 in the year 2018. All 5 elephants killed were reported from the Indian state of Assam. The information comes with the welcome news that the total number of elephants killed by the poacher community has been gradually coming down. This is especially true for the past 4 to 5 years.

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2 killed in elephant attacks in C’garh’s Surajpur

Korba (Chhattisagrh), Jan 7 (PTI) Two persons were trampled to death by an elephant in separate places in Devnagar village in Chhattisgarh’s Surajpur district, an official said Monday.

In an incident that took place Sunday in Badkapara locality of the village, a woman identified as Chandarmani Singh (25) was killed by the tusker at a relative’s vegetable farm, Divisional Forest Officer (Surajpur division) BP Singh said.

Later, a motorcycle-borne man identified as Tejram Rajwade (45) was trampled to death by this elephant in Kumharpara locality in the village, he added.

“The elephant has ventured into Surjapur area from neighbouring Koriya district. There is no forest close to Devnagar village and, therefore, forest personnel are facing difficulty chasing it away. We are also looking at the option of tranquilising the elephant and leaving it in any nearby forest,” Singh said.

The bodies have been sent for post mortem and the kin of the deceased have been given Rs 25,000 as immediate relief, he added.

He informed that four people have been killed by elephants in Surajpur district in separate incidents in the past four days.

The thick forested northern Chhattisgarh, comprising Surguja, Surajpur, Korba, Raigarh, Jashpur, Balrampur and Koriya districts, have witnessed several human-elephant conflicts, officials said.

This is published unedited from the PTI feed.

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Woman, infant daughter trampled to death by marauding jumbo herd in Jharkhand village

A woman and her one-year-old daughter were trampled to death as a herd of 18 elephants went on a rampage through a village in Jharkhand’s Gumla district early on Monday, forest officials said.

The deceased were identified as Archana Baghawar, 26, and her daughter Ishita. Four people of the family were sleeping in the asbestos-roofed mud house, when the incident took place around 4 am.

Recounting their terrifying experience, Archana’s mother in-law Luisa Devi, 50, said , “We were four people sleeping in two different rooms of the house as my son James was in Bokaro since Sunday. Around 4 am, we heard elephants trumpeting. Moment after, the herd razed a portion of the house wall.

“My sister in-law and I escaped from northern side of the house. Archana, holding her daughter, tried to flee from another side but they were trampled to death by elephants, as they stepped out of the house.”

Hearing the trumpeting, villagers chased away the elephants to the nearby forest, around one kilometre from the village. However, the elephants again returned to the village pond around 10 am and then moved towards Bano forest range in Simdega.

“We have given Rs 50,000 to the family of the deceased immediately on Monday, while remaining Rs 7.5 lakh compensation would be given to the family after official formalities,” Gumla divisional forest officer (DFO), Srikant Verma said.

He said the herd entered the Rampur village from Palkot wildlife sanctuary where it was staying for over a week.

“The herd had entered Sakiya village on Sunday afternoon. The forest team chased them away from the village and kept vigil till the evening. The herd, however, entered the Rampur village on Sunday night through the forest route,” Verma said.

Gumla forest ranger John Robert Tirkey said the herd went to Bano forest range by Monday afternoon, 10-12 km from the village.

“We have asked the villagers to be alert and avoid going out of home at night. We have equipped them with torches and fire crackers to help them to fight the elephants in case they enter the village again,” he said, adding, villagers were also asked not to store grain or Mahua flower, an ingredient to make country liquor, at home.

The incident caused panic in Rampur, a village of 398 houses as per the 2011 census. However, the house where the incident took place is located alone around 400 metres away from the main village, a forest official said.

“We are not safe even at home. Forest department must ensure safety of the villagers from elephants. Another herd of five elephants have been found in Majhkera village, which is not far from this village,” said Raju Soreng, a village resident.

In Jharkhand, an average of 62 people were killed by elephants every year since 2009-10. As per the forest department, a total of 610 people were killed from 2009-2010 to November 2018, of which 53 people were killed from April to November 2018

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Elephants kill man in Jharkhand

Ranchi: A man was trampled to death by a herd of elephants in Jharkhands Jamtara district on Thursday.

According to police, a herd of 22 elephants reached Nurgi village from Dhanbad district. The victim, Rustam Mia, had gone to answer nature’s call.

The elephants chased him and trampled him to death. The forest department officials reached the spot and took the body.

The man’s family was given a cheque of Rs 25,000 on Thursday.

The Jharkhand government gives Rs 1 lakh compensation to people killed by elephants. Of this, Rs 25,000 is handed over instantly and the rest is given after completion of official formalities.

In Jharkhand, more than 800 people have been trampled to death by elephants since 2000.

–IANS

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THIS NEW DEVICE COULD SAVE THOUSANDS OF ELEPHANTS FROM BEING HIT BY TRAINS IN INDIA

A new, high-tech device is set to be tested in India that could prevent the rising number of elephants killed by trains.

A decade in the making, the device — developed by Professor Subrat Kar at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi — uses sensors, cameras, and lasers to detect the presence of elephants near the train tracks. Once elephants are detected, the sensors send messages directly to drivers so they can either slow down or stop the train completely.

This device is long overdue and highly needed; India has the highest number of elephant deaths due to trains in the world. Between 1987 and 2017, 266 elephants were killed by trains.

Last year, 12 elephants were killed by trains, but 2018 has already seen the death of 26 elephants due to railway collisions.

In February this year, five elephants were tragically killed when hit by a speeding train. The herd included young calves who were unable to move off the tracks in time; the adult elephants surrounded the babies in an attempt to save them, resulting in the death of two babies and three adults.

Only a month ago, another elephant was killed as it tried to cross the tracks in Assam.

These numbers are shocking, especially since authorities have been trying to address the problem for the last five years. New rules came into play last year stating that trains must go no faster than 30 km per hour in elephant corridors, and wildlife officials are supposed to let the Railways department know about movements of herds close to the tracks. In some spots, there are even speakers which emit the sound of buzzing bees in an attempt to deter elephants.

A LadyFreethinker petition urging India’s Minister of Railways to take action on this issue has reached nearly 18,000 signatures.

SIGN: Stop Freight Trains from Killing India’s Elephants

Elephant/human conflict is a massive problem for the nation, as the population expands into key habitats and elephants are forced to interact with people and deal with manmade hazards.

Train tracks cross through 20 of India’s 101 elephant corridors, and the problem is only going to increase as infrastructure — including more railway lines — spreads across the country.

With elephant deaths occurring with increasing regularity, this device can’t come soon enough; however, researchers are waiting until the 2019 monsoon season to commence testing at a site in the Rajaji National Park.

“We will install sensors at sensitive spots, and not everywhere,” said Subrat Kar, the developer of the device. “There are known paths along which the elephants move, so we install sensors on these paths, which detect them through bodyrays, cameras, and vibration.

“The success of this preventive measure depends on detecting the elephants much before the train is there. Three kilometers before roughly translates to 3-4 minutes before.

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Elephants trampled crush 3, old lady dies out of shock

Hazaribagh, Nov 15 (UNI) A group of elephants wreaked havoc in
three villages of Barkagaon of this district and killed three men.

The grandmother of one of the deceased died of shock after receiving
news of her grandson's death.

The first incident took place in Mirzapur village where one Habib
Ansari (27) was mowed down by a tusker. Ansari, along with his
friends, was trying to take a selfie with the tuskers when suddenly an
adult elephant attacked him and he died on the spot. His grandmother,
unable to bear the loss, died of shock.

Later the same group of elephants killed one Tulsi Mahto (45) in
Simratri village while another Lilu Sao (45) was crushed by the tuskers
in Dokatand village. Both the men died when they were trying to scare away the animals.

The group of 25 elephants, which includes three calves, has destroyed
paddy crop in more than a dozen villages of the Barkagaon block. The
villagers were in anger post the incident as they suffered losses worth lakhs of rupee.
UNI XC-AK AND

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Elephants break structures in park at Guriguripal

A herd of 50 elephants rampaged through a four-acre park at Guriguripal on Saturday night, breaking boundary walls and damaging several structures, including slides and sitting arrangements.

The animals have been roaming in the jungles of West Midnapore’s Guriguripal, about 15km from Midnapore town, for the past six months.

The Bengal forest department maintains the 10-year-old park located between a thicket and cropland. The park has an artificial pond which attracted elephants in the past.

On Sunday morning, it was found that in addition to damaging the park, the elephants had also eaten or damaged most of the paddy on the farmland surrounding the park.

An official of Midnapore Sadar block administration said it would be risky to reconstruct the wall and other structures till the herd was driven away.

“Earlier, there were fewer elephants in the area but now, the herd has increased to about 50. So, we don’t want to take up repairs until the herd leaves the area,” said an official.

Rabindranath Saha, the divisional forest officer of Midnapore range, said: “The herd has increased in number over the past six months in the Midnapore Sadar block. Nine persons have been killed by elephants over the past six months in West Midnapore district. There is another herd that is roaming in the jungles of Kharagpur block about 40km away.”

A senior forester said the department was running short of manpower and was not in a position to tackle such a big herd.

“We are planning to enlist the help of our counterparts in Jaldapara in north Bengal. We will get a special type of gun that fires ‘chilli bombs’. These are used to drive away elephants,” the officer said.

Saha said in addition to Gurguripal, the 50-member marauding herd had caused scare in in the forest villages of Dumurkota, Junesole, Panjasole, Shukhnakhali, Gurabandi, Chandra and Pirakata also.

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Herd of elephants electrocuted while hunting for food

A herd of elephants were electrocuted after coming into contact with low-hanging power cables while on the hunt for food. The elephants were part of a herd of about 15 that came near Kamalanga, a village in Dhenkanal district of Orissa state, India, on Saturday. The carcasses were spotted by villagers who then informed the forest guards.

Shocking video footage shows four elephants in the stream while three are lying on the path running along the bank.

The seven mammals were said to have heading towards the stream from a nearby paddy field. Reports said that they came in contact with sagging 11-kilovolt power cables. It is said to be the highest number of elephants killed in a single incident in Odisha’s known history.

Officials from the forest department visited the scene and organised the removal of the huge elephants’ bodies. A spokesperson called it ‘most sad’ and pointed a finger at the power department, accusing them of carelessness. The statement said: ‘We have lost seven elephants because of the central power company’s negligence.

‘The electricity authority was constantly being told about the low-hanging cables, both by forest department officials and local residents.’ According to reports, the state government has since suspended six officials and dismissed a junior engineer of the power company deemed responsible. Meanwhile, the forest department has suspended three staff members including the ranger of Dhenkanal pending their own investigation.

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To prevent elephants from straying on tracks, Indian Railways has a very novel idea

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

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 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. Unlike in Kenya, where boutique beehives are dangled from fences to keep elephants away, NFR uses an electronic “buzzer” to keep the animals at bay. While elephant-repulsion techniques such as the chili bomb and electric fences have been used earlier, this buzzing sound has been the most effective and cost-efficient.


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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.

To read the full article, click on the story title.

Five Elephants Killed After Being Hit By Speeding Train In New Delhi, India

On Saturday February 10, five elephants were killed after being hit by a speeding train in New Delhi, India.

As the night train to Silchar approached the elephants who were crossing the tracks, a group of villagers waved their flashlights frantically in an attempt to alert the driver to slow down. However, by the time the driver saw what was in front of him and hit the emergency breaks, it was too late.

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Tusks seized from New Alipore house

Two elephant tusks weighing around 31kg were seized from a house in New Alipore Block B on Tuesday

One of the tusks is 148cm-long and has a girth of 35cm, while the other has a length of 132cm and a girth of 34cm.

"The tusks were found in the possession of Rabin Paul. We are trying to find out the ownership before taking further action," an officer of the CID said.

The team that raided the New Alipore house following a "specific" tip-off comprised representatives of the CID and the wildlife wing of the state forest department. Calcutta police helped the raiding team.

Possessing or trading in ivory is banned around the world.

A kilogram of uncarved ivory can cost anything between Rs 20,000 and Rs 70,000 in the black market, while intricately carved items can fetch up to crores of rupees.

"Ivory trade within India has come down significantly. Poachers usually target the illegal markets in China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and some other Asian countries where the demand for ivory is high. There, ivory is used in personalised nameplates, statues, and other items," a forest department official said.

Elephant are protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Killing the animal or keeping any ivory item can attract at least three years in jail and a fine of Rs-50,000.

India is home to 27,300 of the 50,000-odd Asian elephants found across the world, according to the 2017 count. At the turn of the century, there were 2,50,000 Asian elephants in 13 countries.

More than 80 elephants were killed in India over the past three years.

A report released by the environment ministry states that Karnataka has the largest number of elephants, followed by Assam and Kerala.

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Eight elephants died of poisoning in Assam in 2018: Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma

Eight elephants had been killed by poisoning in the State this year, State Environment and Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma informed the Assembly on Thursday while presenting the data on man-elephant conflict.

This was six more than the number of elephants killed in 2016-17, according to the Minister.

Patches of paddy fields drenched with common pesticides claimed 26 jumbos in Sonitpur district in 2002 – but wildlife activists have found a fairly new method of killing the animals by poisoning rice beer or fermented rice for producing liquor.

Many villages in Assam use rice to make liquor, for which the State government wants geographical indication tag. Elephants that raid villages are known to develop a taste for this liquor.

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