Lok Sabha Question No. 193 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-11-25
Subject: Human-Animal Conflicts
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Shri Benny Behanan, Shri Anto Antony

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 193

TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.11.2024

## Human-Animal Conflicts

## 193. SHRI ANTO ANTONY: SHRI BENNY BEHANAN:

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

- (a) the number of human-animal conflicts reported during the last five years along with the number of human casualties resulting from these incidents, year-wise and Statewise;
- (b) the number of wildlife fatalities caused by human activities during the last five years, species-wise;
- (c) the number of crop damage incidents caused by wild animals reported during the last five years, and the estimated economic loss resulting from these incidents;
- (d) the  number  of  compensation  claims  filed  for  damages  related  to  human-animal conflict, the  number of claims resolved successfully;
- (e) the action taken by the Government to address the rising number of human-animal conflicts, especially on the periphery of forest areas; and
- (f) the action proposed by the Government to avoid the mismanagement of funds after the merger of Project Tiger and Project Elephant?

## ANSWER

MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI KIRTI VARDHAN SINGH)

- (a) The details of human deaths during the last five years due to attacks by elephants and tigers as reported by States are at Annexure-I and Annexure-II .
- (b) The number of tiger and elephant deaths other than natural causes during the last five years as reported by States are at Annexure-III , Annexure-IV, AnnexureV, Annexure-VI and Annexure-VII respectively.
- (c) and (d) Protection  and  management  of  wildlife  is  primarily  the  responsibility  of  State Governments/UT Administrations. The data regarding crop damage incidentsand compensation  claims  due  to  human-wildlife  conflicts  are  collated  at  the  state level.
- (e) and (f) The  important  steps  taken  by  Government  for  protection  of  wildlife  and  to address the rising number of human-animal conflicts include the following:
- i. A network  of  Protected  Areas  namely  viz.,  National  Park,  Sanctuaries, Conservation  Reserves  and  Community  Reserves  covering  important wildlife habitat  have  been created all over the  country under  the provisions  of  the  Wild  Life  (Protection)  Act,  1972  to  conserve  wild animals and their habitats.
- ii. The  Central  Government  provides  financial  assistance  to  State/Union Territory Governments under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes 'Development of Wildlife Habitats'and 'Project Tiger and Elephant' for management  of  wildlife  and  its  habitat  in  the  country.  The  activities supported  under  the  schemes  include  construction/erection  of  physical barriers such as solar powered electric fence, bio-fencing, boundary walls etc. to prevent the entry of wild animals into crop fields.
- iii. Ministry has awarded a projectto Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun,titled 'Population Management of Species involved in Human Wildlife  Conflict'  to  study  the  applicability  of  reproductive  control  for conflict  mitigation  on  Population  management  of  species  in  January, 2018. The project aims to develop and implement a range of mitigation strategies  including  immune-contraception  for  managing  conflict  with wild animal populations in the country.
- iv. An advisory on dealing with human-wildlife conflict has been issued by the  Ministry  in  February  2021.  The  Advisory  recommends  coordinated interdepartmental action, identification of conflict hot spots, adherence to Standard  Operating  Procedures,  establishment  of  rapid  response  teams, formation of State and District level committees to review the quantum of ex-gratia relief, and issuing guidance/instructions for expedited payments etc.
- v. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has also issued Guidelines to States/UTs on 3 rd  June, 2022 on managing Human Wildlife conflict including damage to crops.
- vi. The  Ministry  has  also  issued  species-specific  guidelines  to  deal  with human-wildlife conflict situations on 21.03.2023.
- vii. The  Wild  Life  (Protection)  Act,  1972  provides  regulatory  functions  for dealing with human wildlife conflict situations.

Further, no mismanagement of funds has been reported by the States/ UTs after the merger of Project Tiger and Project Elephant.

*****

## Annexure referred to in reply to part (a) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 193 due for reply on 25.11.2024 regarding 'Human-Animal conflicts'.

## DETAILS OF HUMAN DEATHSDUE TO ELEPHANT ATTACK

| S. No.        | State     | 2019-20   | 2020-21   |   2021-22 |   2022-23 | 2023-24        |
|---------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|----------------|
| 1             | 4         | 6         | NR        |         5 |         6 | Andhra Pradesh |
| 2 Arunachal   | Pradesh 0 | 0         | 2         |         0 |         0 |                |
| 3 Assam       | 75        | 91        | 63        |        80 |        74 |                |
| Chhattisgarh  | 77        | 42        | 64        |        69 |        51 | 4              |
| Jharkhand     | 84        | 74        | 133       |        96 |        87 | 5              |
| Karnataka     | 30        | 26        | 27        |        29 |        48 | 6              |
| Kerala        | 13        | 27        | 35        |        27 |        22 | 7              |
| Maharashtra   | 1         | NR        | 0         |         2 |         5 | 8              |
| Meghalaya     | 4         | 6         | 3         |         3 |         7 | 9              |
| Nagaland      | 0         | 0         | 2         |         1 |         1 | 10             |
| Odisha        | 117       | 93        | 112       |       148 |       154 | 11             |
| Tamil Nadu    | 58        | 57        | 37        |        43 |        61 | 12             |
| Tripura       | 2         | 1         | 2         |         2 |         1 | 13             |
| Uttar Pradesh | 6         | 1         | 0         |         4 |         4 | 14             |
| Uttarakhand   | NR        | NR        | NR        |         4 |         8 | 15             |
| West Bengal   | 116       | 47        | 77        |        97 |        99 | 16             |
| Total         |           | 587       | 471       |       557 |       610 | 628            |

*NR- Information not received from State

Annexure referred to in reply to part (a) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 193 due for reply on 25.11.2024 regarding 'Human-Animal conflicts'.

## DETAILS OF HUMAN DEATHS DUE TO TIGER ATTACK

| S. No.   | State          |   2019 |   2020 |   2021 |   2022 | 2023   | 2024 (upto 30-06- 2024)   |
|----------|----------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|---------------------------|
| 1        | Bihar          |      0 |      1 |      4 |      9 | -      | 1                         |
| 2        | Chhattisgarh   |      0 |      0 |      0 |      0 | 3      | 0                         |
| 3        | Karnataka      |      4 |      0 |      1 |      1 | 8      | 1                         |
| 4        | Kerala         |      0 |      2 |      0 |      0 | 0      | 0                         |
| 5        | Madhya Pradesh |      1 |     11 |      2 |      3 | 10     | 6                         |
| 6        | Maharashtra    |     26 |     25 |     32 |     82 | 35     | 20                        |
| 7        | Rajasthan      |      5 |      0 |      0 |      0 | -      | 0                         |
| 8        | Tamil Nadu     |      0 |      1 |      3 |      0 | 1      | 0                         |
| 9        | Telangana      |      0 |      2 |      0 |      0 | -      | 0                         |
| 10       | Uttar Pradesh  |      8 |      4 |     11 |     11 | 25     | 10                        |
| 11       | Uttarakhand    |      2 |      0 |      1 |      3 | -      | 6                         |
| 12       | West Bengal    |      3 |      5 |      5 |      1 | -      | -                         |
|          | TOTAL          |     49 |     51 |     59 |    110 | 82     | 44                        |

Annexure referred to in reply to part (b) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 193 due for reply on 25.11.2024 regarding 'Human-Animal conflicts'.

## Details of tiger deaths reported by States due to poaching, seizure and unnatural causes

| Year                    |   Poaching |   Seizure |   Unnatural causes |   Total |
|-------------------------|------------|-----------|--------------------|---------|
| 2019                    |         17 |         4 |                  3 |      24 |
| 2020                    |         15 |         3 |                  2 |      20 |
| 2021                    |          8 |         1 |                 11 |      20 |
| 2022                    |         12 |         2 |                 15 |      29 |
| 2023                    |         12 |         4 |                  9 |      25 |
| 2024 (As on 20.11.2024) |          1 |         0 |                  0 |      01 |
| Total                   |         65 |        14 |                 40 |     119 |

## Annexure referred to in reply to part (b) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 193 due for reply on 25.11.2024 regarding 'Human-Animal conflicts'.

## Elephant deathsdue totrain accidents

| S. No.   | State        |   2019-20 | 2020-21   | 2021-22   |   2022-23 |   2023-24 |
|----------|--------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| 1        | Assam        |         2 | 5         | 8         |         7 |         2 |
| 2        | WestBengal   |         5 | 0         | 0         |         1 |         4 |
| 3        | TamilNadu    |         0 | 1         | 3         |         0 |         0 |
| 4        | Jharkhand    |         1 | 1         | 0         |         1 |         1 |
| 5        | Kerala       |         3 | 0         | 0         |         2 |         0 |
| 6        | Odisha       |         1 | 4         | 3         |         3 |         5 |
| 7        | Tripura      |         0 | 0         | 0         |         0 |         1 |
| 8        | Uttarakhand  |         2 | NR        | NR        |         1 |         4 |
| 9        | UttarPradesh |         0 | 0         | 0         |         0 |         0 |
| 10       | Karnataka    |         0 | 1         | 1         |         0 |         0 |
|          | Total        |        14 | 12        | 15        |        15 |        17 |

*NR-Information not received from State.

## Annexure referred to in reply to part (b) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 193 due for reply on 25.11.2024 regarding 'Human-Animal conflicts'.

## Elephant Deathsdue toElectrocution

| S. No.   | State   | 2019-20   | 2020-21   |   2021-22 | 2022-23   | 2023-24           |
|----------|---------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-------------------|
| 1        | 5       | 1         | NR        |         5 | 6         | Andhra Pradesh    |
| 2        | 0       | 0         | NR        |         1 | 0         | Arunachal Pradesh |
| 3        | 11      | 13        | 12        |         8 | 11        | Assam             |
| 4        | 2       | 7         | 4         |         9 | 10        | Chhattisgarh      |
| 5        | 5       | 5         | 4         |         6 | 10        | Jharkhand         |
| 6        | 8       | 9         | 7         |        15 | 13        | Karnataka         |
| 7        | 4       | 2         | 6         |         7 | 10        | Kerala            |
| 8        | 0       | NR        | 0         |         0 | 2         | Maharashtra       |
| 9        | 5       | 0         | 1         |         1 | 1         | Meghalaya         |
| 10       | 2       | 1         | 1         |         0 | 1         | Nagaland          |
| 11       | 9       | 8         | 13        |        26 | 15        | Odisha            |
| 12       | 15      | 9         | 5         |        14 | 6         | TamilNadu         |
| 13       | 0       | 0         | 0         |         0 | 0         | Tripura           |
| 14       | 3       | 0         | 2         |         0 | 1         | UttarPradesh      |
| 15       | 2       | NR        | NR        |         3 | 1         | Uttarakhand       |
| 16       |         | 5 10      | 2         |         5 | 7         | WestBengal        |
|          | Total   | 76 65     | 57        |       100 |           | 94                |

Annexure referred to in reply to part (b) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 193 due for reply on 25.11.2024 regarding 'Human-Animal conflicts'.

## Elephant Deathsdue topoaching

| S. No       |   State | 2019-20   |   2020-21 |   2021-22 |   2022-23 | 2023-24   |
|-------------|---------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| 1 Assam     |       0 | 0         |         0 |         2 |         1 |           |
| Jharkhand   |       1 | 0         |         0 |         0 |         0 | 2         |
| Kerala      |       1 | 1         |         0 |         0 |         0 | 3         |
| Maharashtra |       0 | NR        |         0 |         0 |         0 | 4         |
| Meghalaya   |       4 | 7         |         0 |         3 |         0 | 5         |
| Nagaland    |       0 | 2         |         0 |         0 |         0 | 6         |
| Odisha      |       3 | 2         |         1 |         8 |         3 | 7         |
| Tamil Nadu  |       0 | 2         |         3 |         1 |         4 | 8         |
| WestBengal  |       0 | 0         |         0 |         0 |         1 | 9         |
| Total       |       9 | 14        |         4 |        14 |         9 |           |

*NR-Information not received from State.

## Annexure referred to in reply to part (b) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 193 due for reply on 25.11.2024 regarding 'Human-Animal conflicts'.

## Elephant Deathsdue topoisoning

| S. No.   |   State | 2019-20   |   2020-21 |   2021-22 |   2022-23 | 2023-24      |
|----------|---------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------------|
| 1        |       0 | 1         |         6 |         2 |         1 | Assam        |
| 2        |       0 | 1         |         0 |         1 |         0 | Chhattisgarh |
| 3        |       0 | 0         |         0 |         1 |         0 | WestBengal   |
| Total    |       0 |           |         2 |         6 |         4 | 1            |

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