Attack by elephants: 24 lost lives in 5 years in Meghalaya

Shillong, April 20: Twenty-four persons lost their lives in five years as wild elephants, whose natural habitat has been shrinking, wrecked havoc and entered human habitations. Every year, an average of ten elephants get electrocuted, mostly in Garo Hills.

According to Chief Minister Donkupar Roy, the Government had paid Rs 24 lakh as ex-gratia to kin of victims and also as compensation to the damaged paddy.

Only in November last year, Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, Sunil Kumar had told The Indian Express that every year around ten elephants die due to electrocution. Last year, the state forest department had written a letter to the Meghalaya State Electricity Board to raise the height of electric wires whereever possible.

Wildlife experts say that if the habitation of elephants is preserved, the pachyderms will not stray into villages and damage paddy, kill human beings or get electrocuted.

In Meghalaya, the total population of elephants has been put at 1,868.

Kumar had said the population has more or less remained the same for many years. In the state, elephants die either due to electrocution or retaliatory killing by the villagers. Roy, however, informed the Assembly that the Government had carried out fresh census of elephants between February 20 to 26 but said the details are yet to be arrived at.

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