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After concerted efforts, the state Forest and Wildlife department has been able to bring down the number of cases of man-elephant conflict in south Bengal to 40 this year from 100 in 2015. “The entire mechanism in areas (where elephant attacks had increased) had broken down. Such as the cooperation between villagers and forest range officials. The communication between the officials in the four districts – Jhargram, Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia – where the elephant attacks had suddenly risen, was also not functioning properly. By simply putting these mechanisms of cooperation back in to place, we have been able to bring down the incidents of elephant attacks,” said Chief Wildlife warden and Principal Conservator Forests Ravi Kant Sinha.
In 2015, there were 100 reported cases of elephant attacks. In 2016, this was brought down to 70, and then this year 40 cases have been recorded so far. Till 1985, there was no elephant presence in south Bengal. Most elephants were to be found only in north Bengal in areas like Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri. But as habitations grew in Jharkhand and Orissa, and human population increased in forested areas, elephants started migrating to West Bengal – specifically to south Bengal. “In 1986, the first elephant herd was recorded to have stayed in this region for 15 days after which it went back to the neighbouring states. In 1987, they stayed for 40 days and then in 1988 for three months. In 1989, south Bengal recorded its first ever elephant birth, which meant that the elephant felt comfortable enough to give birth here and the herd had adopted Bengal as its home. Now there are 100 elephants that travel to south Bengal annually in a migratory pattern,” said Sinha.
While initially there were fewer incidents of elephant attacks, over the past decade the attacks had grown as more and more land was cultivated. “Villagers, police and forest officials had started tackling elephant attacks by themselves. There was no coordination. We have now established an early warning system by which elephant movement is tracked and alerts are surrounded. We then ensure that the elephant herd is driven in a regulated manner. The elephants, therefore, venture in to villages and paddy fields less. The incidents which still take place are stray ones — where a villager has gone to an area of the forest they are not meant to go, surprised an elephant, which has attacked him. These kind of incidents we cannot prevent,” he added.