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Source: The post is based on the article “29 elephant poaching cases in 3 years: Centre” published in The Hindu on 13th August 2022.
What is the News?
The Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change(MOEFCC) has informed Lok Sabha about the elephant deaths in the last three years.
What is the status of elephant death?
Human-Elephant Conflict: India is home to 60% of Asian Elephants.
Around 1,578 people died of elephant attacks in India between 2019-20 and 2021-22.
The maximum number of deaths was reported in Odisha followed by Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Hence, on average 500 people are killed annually by elephants and about 100 elephants are killed in retaliation by people. Managing the human-elephant conflict is a major focus of the Indian government.
To reach out to the families of the victims affected by elephants, the Government of India has increased the ex gratia from ₹2 lakh to ₹5 lakh.
Illegal Trade of Elephant Tusks/Ivory: Around 90 cases of seizure of elephant tusks were reported in the past three years.
Against this, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau(WCCB) has conducted an enforcement operation named Operation Wildnet. The operation was aimed to draw the attention of the enforcement agencies on the ever-increasing illegal wildlife trade using social media platforms.
What are the steps the Government is planning to take to reduce elephant deaths?
At the 17th steering committee meeting of Project Elephant held at Periyar National Park in Kerala, the Union Environment Ministry announced:
1. To curb unnatural elephant deaths by taking up track casualties with the Railway Ministry.
2. To hold workshops across the country to address human-elephant conflict.
3. To set up a panel to look into the deaths of elephants in Odisha (by accidents with trains and electrocution) and Jharkhand and furnish a detailed report to the Centre.
4. To develop separate management plans for elephants, which should be incorporated into the management plans of reserves, national parks, sanctuaries and territorial divisions’ working plans.
