Wild elephants killed 108 people in West Bengal in 2015-16, says Forest Department

With 108 people killed by wild elephants in the state in 2015-16, the West Bengal Forest Department has chalked out a two-pronged approach to deal with the man-elephant conflict in the state which has reached an “alarming” situation.

“In 2015-2016, 108 people were killed and 95 injured by wild elephants in the state. Out of these 108, 71 have been killed in south Bengal. A total of 14 elephants have been killed in these incidents. We have reached an alarming situation in Bengal,” Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Pradeep Vyas said.

He said that the forest department took a two-pronged “holistic approach” to deal with the human-elephant conflict in the state.

“We have two parts in dealing with the issue—short term and long term. In short term, we are monitoring  the movement of the elephants in the state on a daily basis. All the human injury or wildlife injury will be monitored on a daily basis,” Vyas said.

“Secondly, we have also formed an Elephant Movement Coordination Committee (EMCC), which was not there earlier. It is headed by two chief conservators.”

“This committee monitors the movement of elephant in south West Bengal regularly and ensures that unnecessary obstructions are not caused in the smooth movement of elephants. Because if the elephants are obstructed repeatedly they might get irritated and conflict might increase,” he said.

Vyas said, “The committee is functioning in an excellent manner for the last two months and has ensured the return of 70-80 elephants to Jharkhand.”

“We are making two elephant rescue and rehabilitation centres, one in north Bengal and another in south Bengal.  Those elephants which are very aggressive in nature will be captured and put in these centres where they will stay in conditions similar to that in the wild,” he said.