Coimbatore: Wild elephants strayed into human habitats and agriculture fields in the Coimbatore forest division 1,726 times between September 2016 to August 20, 2017, data available with Osai, an NGO, shows. The elephants mostly strayed out of the Mettupalayam forest range—599 times.
The NGO conducted the study after the forest department requested details on such incidents. A team led by biologist G Srinivas started the study in September 2016. “The data we collected will help the forest department to identify the places, which are often targeted by wild elephants,” Srinivas told TOI.
The team has also been collecting details including the number of people involved in chasing away the animals and crop raid details, the biologist added.
Osai president K Kalidasan said as many as 23 people were killed in elephant attacks between 1994 and 2004 in Coimbatore forest division. “As many as 99 people were killed between 2004 and 2014 in the division, which consists of Madukkarai, Boluvampatti, Coimbatore, Periyanaickenpalayam, Karamadai, Mettupalayam and Sirumugai forest ranges. People have disturbed the migratory paths of the wild elephants, leading into human-elephant conflicts,” he told TOI.
The study would help to quantifying the conflicts in the division and would discuss about human lives, crop damages and also injuries suffered by wild elephants. “The Osai team will submit the study report to the forest department next month. We plan to conduct a similar study for the year 2014- 2016,” Kalidasan said.
“While wild elephants straying out of the forest make news, forest department and NGOs lacked precise data. Our study will include details of deaths caused by wild elephants and will offer solutions to avoid such incidents,” he added. District forest officer of the Coimbatore forest division N Satheesh said Osai would collect data for five years. “This effort will help the department to prevent man-animal conflict in future,” he said.