Wildlife experts and forest officials in West Bengal are caught in a strange dilemma when it comes to the growing human-elephant conflict in north Bengal. It is a price they are paying for the success story of elephant conservation, they say. With north Bengal boasting of a healthy elephant population of 400 elephants — from 150 in the 1980s — forest officials are apprehensive that cases of man-animal conflict could aggravate with time.

According to Right of Passage, a Wildlife Trust of India publication, “although this number is only a little above one per cent of the total elephant population of India, an extraordinarily high human-animal conflict, characterises this region”.

The elephants inhabiting the region, spread across the districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar, comprising nine forest divisions of Kurseong, Wildlife-1, Baikunthapur, Kalimpong, Wildlife-2, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Buxa Tiger Reserve (West), Buxa Tiger Reserve (East).

An area of grave concern for the Forest Department has been the repeated mowing down of animals by trains. In fact, this has been a recurrent phenomenon and till now no amount of “talks” between the Railways and the Forest Department has led to any headway. Ironically, the Railways has the elephant Bholu as its mascot.

Most of the cases have been reported from the 100-km stretch between Siliguri and Alipurduar that passes through Buxa Tiger Reserve, Jaldapara, Mahananda and Chapramari wildlife sanctuaries. The Siliguri-Alipurduar broad gauge line cuts across the corridor that connects the Apalchand Reserve Forest of Baikunthapur Forest Division and Mal Block of Kalimpong Forest Division.

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