Electrocution of male elephant highlights human-wildlife conflict (Nepal)
Electrocution of male elephant highlights human-wildlife conflict (Nepal)
Chandan Kumar Mandal, The Kathmandu Post
January 11, 2021
See link
https://kathmandupost.com/climate-environment/2021/01/11/electrocution-of-male-elephant-highlights-human-wildlife-conflict
for photo.
On Friday night, a male elephant raided a wheat farm in Saptari. But before
it could feed on the wheat, it received a strong electric shock and
collapsed.
According to Laxman Safi, a ranger at the Division Forest Office, Saptari,
the elephant died on the spot at around 10:15 PM at Amaha, Khadak
Municipality.
“The farmer had placed a high-voltage electric wire around the wheat field.
The field lies north of the East-West highway and adjacent to the jungle
where a herd of elephants has been seen roaming,” Safi, told the Post from
Saptari. “The area is known for the movement of elephants. The elephant
wouldn’t have seen the electric wire at night and died a tragic death.”
People of Khadak Municipality say they don’t kill the elephants
intentionally even as they suffer from their menace round the year.
“Elephant menace goes on around the year in many wards of the municipality.
Wild elephants damage crops and destroy people’s homes,” said Hemayu Haque,
mayor of the municipality. “But people do not intentionally want to kill
elephants irrespective of the loss. What has happened is merely an
accident.”
According to the forest ranger, a herd of six elephants has been spotted in
the area lately. Although farmers in other parts of the district have been
installing electric fencing for some time, this was the first time that an
elephant had died.
“Elephants always follow their routes. They had been in the jungle all
day,” said Safi. “It must have been hungry as it strayed outside. In other
areas, farmers install electric fencing just to give a jolt to the
intruders, but in this case, a live wire with high voltage was used.”
Within one-and-a-half months, two elephants have been electrocuted in
Saptari district alone. Earlier, an elephant had died when it was
scratching against an electricity pole and happened to touch a
high-intensity transmission line on November 22 in Kanchanrup Municipality.
The electrocution of the male elephant, aged 20-22 years, on Friday is one
example of human-elephant conflict, a major challenge for conservationists.
Illegal installation of electric fences by farmers is turning out to be
lethal for elephants in the country.
“We have been living in terror for several years,” said Haque.
“We can not call this electric fencing. These are the intentionally-placed
death traps for our elephants,” Ashok Kumar Ram, chief conservation officer
with Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, told the Post. “Within a span of a few
months, we have lost three elephants, including one in Jhapa. This is a
worrying sign for the country.”
According to elephant researchers like Ram, the country, which has just a
small number of wild elephants, loses 2-3 elephants every year in
retaliatory acts by local communities.
Such an annual death rate, irrespective of however small it might appear,
is alarming for the country where the number of illegal poaching cases of
elephants stands at zero.
“These elephants can not move freely. They are chased away whenever they
are seen. Locals place electric fencing to keep them away from their farms
and houses. They are blocked everywhere,” said Ram. “Also, there is no food
for elephants who need around 200kg of food every day. Where would they go?
Even this elephant carried scars of bullet and spear wounds. Despite all
these struggles, they are trying to co-exist with humans.”
Asiatic elephants usually traverse long distances in search of food. They
travel across farmlands and human settlements while foraging along the way.
As a measure to stop elephants from raiding crops, locals in eastern Nepal,
which experiences elephants raiding not only from elephants on the Nepali
side but also from the Indian side, have installed electric fences.
Besides, Nepali authorities also installed a 17 km solar-powered electric
fence in 2015 in the north-eastern part of Jhapa district to protect farms
against transboundary herds of wild elephants that annually enter Nepal
from India.
A study assessing its effectiveness found that the number of human-elephant
conflict incidents had sharply been reduced by 96.13 percent after the
installation of the fences.
However, such measures have turned lethal for elephants in the country,
where its number is estimated to be around 200.
According to Haribhadra Acharya, spokesperson for the Department of
National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, human-elephant conflicts have the
highest frequency when it comes to cases of human-wildlife conflict.
“Elephants require large areas to roam freely, and that is when they are
attacked. Most of these attacks take place outside the protected areas.
Elephants are not poached, because of strong religious beliefs,” said
Acharya, also an ecologist with the department. “But outside the park, they
are electrocuted. Every year, a few elephants are lost in retaliatory acts.
These are illegal fences and the general public should be aware of its
consequences on wild elephants.”
However, the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation does not
have data on the number of elephants killed by such fencing as its annual
reports maintain data only on dead wildlife inside the park.
“These deaths take place outside the protected area and reporting of such
deaths is weak,” said Acharya. “But the death of elephants is a big loss
for the country.”
Elephants are one of the species protected by the National Parks and
Wildlife Conservation Act, 1973. Killing the animal can result in a fine of
Rs500,000 to Rs1,000,000 or five to fifteen years of imprisonment or both,
said Acharya.
These illegally planted electrical fences for warding off elephants have
also turned killer for locals. There are reports of locals accidentally
dying after being trapped in the same electric fences.
The expansion of human settlements and growing development projects pose
threats to wildlife habitat, including elephants. Nepal’s elephant
population is trapped between human settlements and mega-development
projects as they keep losing their habitat and crucial corridors.
Even losing one elephant means a massive loss in such a critical situation,
both Acharya and Ram agree. The country has been already in the midst of
deciding the fate of one wild elephant for the last few weeks. The pressure
has been building on authorities to kill a rogue makhna, a tuskless male
elephant because of a genetic disorder, in eastern Nepal lately.
“The latest report estimates the [wild] elephant population between 200-227
in the country. We have been struggling hard to save the one elephant
Makuna, but elephants continue to die at the hands of locals,” said Ram.
“The government needs to come up with a separate and dedicated programme
for protecting our elephants. Otherwise, elephants will march towards
extinction in the years to come.”