Assam elephants face shrinking habitat

July 11, 2005

www.ndtv.com ( NEW DELHI TELEVISION )

Bano Haralu

Wednesday, June 29, 2005 (Golaghat):

In Assam, the government has licensed stone quarrying which involves

noisy blasting in a reserve forest area that serves as an elephant

corridor near Kaziranga National Park.

This has resulted in elephants using tea estates as thorough fare,

leading to inevitable man animal conflict – angry wild elephants

have been attacking the locals.

Man-animal conflict

One wild elephant from a herd, which has been at the Numaligarh tea

estate in Assam for the past few days, killed a villager last week.

And early Saturday morning, another herd killed a 40-year-old tea

worker and her 18-month-old baby at a neighbouring tea estate.

In Assam's Golaghat district, serious trouble with wild elephant

herds is escalating.

" Earlier if they saw us foresters, they would run. But now they

don't care even if we open firing or burst bombs. Earlier we could

scare them off with search lights but now they come after us, " said

Debojeet Saikia, forester.

Aggressive deforestation and urbanisation of natural reserves has

forced elephants to travel far for food.

Shrinking corridor

One of their last refuges is the 2.5 kilometre elephant corridor

from Mikirchang to Bormahori Pathar in the Karbi Anglong foothills.

Bordered by the Brahmaputra in the north, elephants from Kaziranga

migrate to this area to forage for food and shelter during the

annual floods.

However the presence of the Behora quarry inside the elephant

corridor is affecting the elephants' behaviour.

The shocking truth about the quarrying activity is that it is taking

place in what has been declared an Elephant Reserve in 2003. It's

just 14 kilometres from the Kaziranga National Park and is the last

remaining intact elephant corridor.

With more than twenty stone quarries operating in this area, it's

not difficult to understand why the man-elephant conflict is

escalating.

Recommended Posts