Lok Sabha Question No. 1083 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-02-08
Subject: Death of Elephants
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: GAJANAN CHANDRAKANT KIRTIKAR, VIJAY KUMAR S.R., S. RAJENDRAN, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH, T. RADHAKRISHNAN, SUDHEER GUPTA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1083

TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.02.2019

## Death of Elephants

1083.  SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR:

SHRI S.R. VIJAYAKUMAR:

SHRI S. RAJENDRAN:

KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH:

SHRI T. RADHAKRISHNAN:

SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA:

Will  the  Minister  of  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND  CLIMATE  CHANGE  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) the number of elephants that have died unnaturally in the country during each of the last three years and the current year;
- (b) whether the  Government has conducted  any inquiry in each of the matter and if so,  the details and the outcome thereof;
- (c) whether the wildlife elephants have made chaos in the life of people living in different parts of the country as they have ruined most of the villages and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government has taken any necessary steps in this regard and if so, the details thereof;
- (e) the  number of houses destroyed and persons killed by the wild elephants during the last three years, State/UT-wise; and
- (f) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  minimize  the  impacts  of  human-wildlife  conflict including human-elephant conflict?

## ANSWER

MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (DR. MAHESH SHARMA)

- (a) Details  of  elephants  deaths  due  to  unnatural  reasons  like  train  accidents,  electrocution, poaching and poisoning during the last three years and current years, as per the information received from states, across the Country is as under.
- (b) The  Government  has  conducted  inquiry  and  taken  necessary  action  on  death  of  wild elephants in every incident.  FIR's are also lodged with local police for taking necessary legal action.
- (c) to (f) Yes Madam, human casualties, crop and house damages are reported from various states due  to elephant  attack.    The  number  of  human  killed  by  the  wild elephant  and compensation paid for the loss of life and property during the last three years, State-wise, is given in Annexure I, II and III respectively.

| Year                      |   Train Accident |   Electrocution |   Poaching |   Poisoning |   Total |
|---------------------------|------------------|-----------------|------------|-------------|---------|
| 2015-16                   |                9 |              57 |         33 |           5 |     104 |
| 2016-17                   |               21 |              55 |         11 |           2 |      89 |
| 2017-18                   |               19 |              66 |         10 |          10 |     105 |
| 2018-19 (upto 31.12.2018) |               13 |              48 |          5 |           9 |      75 |
| Total                     |               62 |             226 |         59 |          26 |     373 |

The Government has taken following steps to minimize the impacts of human wildlife conflict including human elephant conflict.

- (i) Financial  and  technical  assistance  is  provided  to  elephant  range  states  under  the Centrally Sponsored Schemes 'Project Elephant' for protection and conservation of elephants in the country.
- (ii) All the elephant states have been directed to implement  the Guidelines for Management of Human Elephant Conflict issued by the Ministry on 6.10.2017.
- (iii) The Ministry has issued guidelines in context of human-wildlife conflict to the Chief Wildlife  Wardens  of  all  the  State  Governments/Union  Territory  Administrations dated 24 th December, 2014 and 1 st June, 2015.
- (iv) The Ministry has notified enhancement of ex-gratia rates related wildlife depredation vide letter No. 14-2/2011 WL-I (part) dated 9 th February, 2018.
- (v) The  Ministry,  with  financial  assistance  from  Ad-hoc  Compensatory  Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), has formulated a scheme to provide assistance to the States for 'Augmentation of Fodder and Water in Protected Areas/Forest Areas', aimed at improving habitat in the areas by making provision for augmenting grass, fodder and water to the wild herbivores.  So as to check the loss caused to by wild animals.
- (vi) Wildlife Institute of India in consultation with the Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change, National Highway Authority, National Tiger Conservation Authority and World Bank Group has published a document namely ' Eco-friendly Measures to Mitigate Impacts of Linear Infrastructure' to assist the project agencies of linear infrastructure in designing the linear infrastructure in a manner which will reduce  human-animal  conflicts  in  the  areas  where  these  linear  infrastructures  are passing through Protected Areas and other wildlife areas.
- (vii) Construction/erecting of physical barriers, such as barbed wire fence, solar powered electric fence, bio-fencing using cactus, boundary wall etc. to prevent entry of wild animals into crop field.
- (viii) The  Ministry has approved a pilot project on the  immune-contraception for controlling the population of wild animals responsible for damage and destruction of crops, namely; elephant, wild boar, monkey, and nilgai.
- (ix) The  Ministry  has  also  initiated  a  human  wildlife  conflict  mitigation  project  in collaboration with the GIZ.
- (x) Works like creation of water sources, plantation of fruiting trees, pasture development,  fire  protection  etc.  are  being  done  to  enrich  elephant  habitat  so  that elephants can be retained in their habitat.
- (xi) Forest  Department  is  engaging  local  communities  as  animal  trackers  to  know  the movement of elephants and also to caution local people to avoid man-animal conflict and to prevent damage or loss of human life and elephants.
- (xii) The  latest  technologies  such  as  WhatsApp,  SMS  based  alert  system,  use  of  Radio Collaring of elephant etc. are used to minimise elephant depredation.

***

## ANNEXURE -I

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (c) to (f) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1083 RAISED BY SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR,  SHRI S.R. VIJAYAKUMAR, SHRI S. RAJENDRAN, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH, SHRI T.  RADHAKRISHNAN  AND  SHRI  SUDHEER  GUPTA  REGARDING  'DEATH  OF ELEPHANTS' DUE FOR REPLY ON 08.02.2019.

## Number of Human Deaths caused by elephant from 2015-16 to 2018-2019

| S.No.            | State             | 2016-17   | 2017-18   | 2015-16 2018-19 (Upto 31.12.2018)   |
|------------------|-------------------|-----------|-----------|-------------------------------------|
| 1 Andhra         | Pradesh 0         | 2         | 6         | 6                                   |
| 2                | Arunachal Pradesh | NR        | NR        | 1 NR                                |
| 3                | Assam             | 91        | 72        | 31 86                               |
| 4                | Chhattisgarh      | 74        | 74        | 53 NR                               |
| 5 Jharkhand      | 66                | 59        | 84        | NR                                  |
| 6 Karnataka      | 47                | 49        | 22        | NR                                  |
| 7 Kerala         | 6                 | 33        | 15        | 15                                  |
| Maharashtra      | 1                 | 0         | 0         | 8 1                                 |
| 9 Meghalaya      | 6                 | 5         | 7         | NR                                  |
| Nagaland         | 1                 | 1         | 0         | 10 1                                |
| Odisha           | 89                | 66        | 105       | 11 45                               |
| 12 Tamil Nadu    | 49                | 43        | 49        | 28                                  |
| 13 Tripura       | 0                 | 2         | 0         | NR                                  |
| 14 Uttar Pradesh | 0                 | 3         | 1         | NR                                  |
| 15 Uttarakhand   | 7                 | 4         | NR        | NR                                  |
| 16 West Bengal   | 112               | 84        | 66        | 45                                  |
| Total            | 469               | 516       | 501       | 227                                 |

## ANNEXURE -II

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (c) to (f) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1083 RAISED BY SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR,  SHRI S.R. VIJAYAKUMAR, SHRI S. RAJENDRAN, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH, SHRI T.  RADHAKRISHNAN  AND  SHRI  SUDHEER  GUPTA  REGARDING  'DEATH  OF ELEPHANTS' DUE FOR REPLY ON 08.02.2019.

## Amount of compensation paid for loss of life from 2015-16 to 2018-19

Rs. In Lakhs

| S.No.   | State             |   2015-16 | 2016-17   | 2017-18   | 2018-19 (upto 31.12.2018)   |
|---------|-------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------------------------|
| 1       | Andhra Pradesh    |      0    | 10        | 30        | 25                          |
| 2       | Arunachal Pradesh |      1    | NR        | NR        | NR                          |
| 3       | Assam             |      0    | 167.4     | 452.4     | 0                           |
| 4       | Chhattisgarh      |    178    | 288.25    | 292.25    | NR                          |
| 5       | Jharkhand         |    184.9  | 110.179   | 223.95    | NR                          |
| 6       | Karnataka         |    228    | 235       | 110       | NR                          |
| 7       | Kerala            |     48.87 | 97.75     | 77.56     | 73.13                       |
| 8       | Maharashtra       |      8    | 0         | 0         | NR                          |
| 9       | Meghalaya         |     30    | 12        | 0         | NR                          |
| 10      | Nagaland          |      1    | 0         | 0         | 1                           |
| 11      | Odisha            |    203.21 | 251.33    | 259.8     | 294.45                      |
| 12      | Tamil Nadu        |    196.75 | 145.75    | 194.5     | 156                         |
| 13      | Tripura           |      2    | NR        | NR        | NR                          |
| 14      | Uttar Pradesh     |      0    | 15        | 5         | NR                          |
| 15      | Uttarakhand       |     23.03 | 9.3       | NR        | NR                          |
| 16      | West Bengal       |    228    | 152.34    | 144.44    | NR                          |
| Total   |                   |   1332.76 | 1494.299  | 1789.9    | 549.58                      |

## ANNEXURE -III

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (c) to (f) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1083 RAISED BY SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR,  SHRI S.R. VIJAYAKUMAR, SHRI S. RAJENDRAN, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH, SHRI T.  RADHAKRISHNAN  AND  SHRI  SUDHEER  GUPTA  REGARDING  'DEATH  OF ELEPHANTS' DUE FOR REPLY ON 08.02.2019.

Amount of compensation paid for loss crop/property damage from 2015-16 to 2018-19

Rs. In Lakhs

| S.No.   | State             |   2015-16 | 2016-17   | 2017-18   | 2018-19 (upto 31.12.2018)   |
|---------|-------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------------------------|
| 1       | Andhra Pradesh    |    78.98  | 53.081    | 24.39     | 54.1988                     |
| 2       | Arunachal Pradesh |    20.9   | NR        | NR        | NR                          |
| 3       | Assam             |     0     | 222       | 103.49    | 0                           |
| 4       | Chhattisgarh      |   963.261 | 1425.86   | 1279.47   | NR                          |
| 5       | Jharkhand         |   485.95  | 428.92    | 412.01    | NR                          |
| 6       | Karnataka         |   705.5   | 709.65    | 1370      | NR                          |
| 7       | Kerala            |   281.051 | 305.82    | 395.46    | 177.656                     |
| 8       | Maharashtra       |   155.22  | 67.99     | 65.52     | 53.03                       |
| 9       | Meghalaya         |   110.52  | 36.63     | 47.45     | NR                          |
| 10      | Nagaland          |     9.555 | 8.75      | 33.33     | 5.51                        |
| 11      | Odisha            |  1196.34  | 1240.22   | 1272.38   | 445.82                      |
| 12      | Tamil Nadu        |   250.76  | 237.01    | 186.408   | 183.045                     |
| 13      | Tripura           |     0.914 | 0         | 0         | NR                          |
| 14      | Uttar Pradesh     |     0     | 10.98     | 11.55     | NR                          |
| 15      | Uttarakhand       |    51.34  | 10.71     | NR        | NR                          |
| 16      | West Bengal       |   477.78  | 806.11    | 969.93    | NR                          |
| Total   |                   |  4788.07  | 5563.731  | 6171.388  | 919.2598                    |