‘Elephant population in Bengal going up, human fatalities dip’

Kolkata: Much to the relief of the Forest department, while the elephant population in Bengal has gone up by leaps and bounds in the state, human deaths in jumbo attacks are also showing a declining trend.

As per data of the state Forest department in the year 2023-24, there were 103 deaths in elephant attacks across the state, which has been 53 in the year 2024-25 as of now. On the contrary, there are 800 pachyderms presently in the state with the number being 650 during the corresponding time last year. In the year 2021-22, the population would hardly go beyond 400.

Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri lead the list of fatalities in jumbo attacks with 18 and 13 deaths respectively followed by Jhargram and West Midnapore where there have been 6 deaths each.

A senior official of the Forest department said that most of the deaths that have occurred this year are of people who had intruded into the elephant’s corridor in a drunken condition. The jumbos are attracted by the alcoholic smell and hence a person in a drunken state is more prone to their attack.

“We have taken awareness on a wide scale in the forest villages and its adjoining areas and this is yielding fruits as deaths in elephant attacks are declining. I have urged the MLAs under whose constituencies there have been incidents of elephants entering into human habitat to take measures for awareness about prevention from elephant attack,” said Birbaha Hansda, state Forest minister.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee while chairing a meeting of the state Tribal Advisory Council on November 18 was informed by Hansda that Odisha cutting roads to block entry of elephants has emerged as one of the major reasons behind the proliferation of jumbos entering into Bengal.

The elephant would travel between a corridor involving Odisha, Jharkhand and Bengal. However, the pachyderms are not getting enough food in Jharkhand and their travel route across Odisha has been blocked. This has led to the elephants settling for longer periods in Bengal and venture behind the forest in search of food. Banerjee asked the Chief Secretary to take up the matter at the appropriate level at the Centre to address the issue.