**Angul:** The ever-increasing deaths of elephants as well as people in human-animal conflicts in Odisha has alarmed environmentalists and wildlife enthusiasts who blame the state Forest Department’s “callous approach” for the problem and have sought an urgent action plan to prevent loss of lives.
A 10-yr-old elephant got electrocuted in Handapa Range of Angul district’s Hemamura village under Sapaghara panchayat when it strayed into the village in search of food. Some villagers had spread an 11 KV live wire on the fields to capture boars, which incidentally was stepped by the jumbo.
Recently, death of 7 elephants due to electrocution by a low-hanging live wire in Dhenkanal shook the State.
Data released by the Wildlife Society of Odisha (WSO), in collaboration with Wildlife Protection Society of India and Elephant Family, show that, since 1990, nearly 1,400 elephants have died because of human-animal conflict, of which 591 died in the last eight years.
In the same period, 1,200 people have been killed by elephants, with the last eight years accounting for 569 of them.
From an average mortality of 33 per year between 1990 and 2000, the number grew to 46 per year between 2000 and 2010 and reached an alarming average of 73 elephants per year from 2010-11 to 2017-18.
If the rising death trend continues, it spells doom for the species as it might significantly overtake the birth rate, WSO Secretary Biswajit Mohanty said.