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| A drunk and an elephant. 123rf.com/ |
The problems of intoxication and drunkenness are world over and they impact countless populations and groups. They've been part of human society for several centuries. If you go deep into the roots, they have different perspectives for different purposes. The frenzied, and sensationalised commentary, and the public debates on drinking point the accusing finger at the declining morally bankrupt, permissive social, cultural and economic landscapes of our times. Polly Toynbee (2005), writing in The Guardian, confesses that ‘British drinking culture as we know it is already repulsively uncivilized’. This is true of many countries, including India where in remote places in many states the police have no control over illicit-brewing, boot-legging. etc.
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| .man-elephant conflict. hindustantimes.com/ |
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| A drunk in India newindianexpress.com |
In my last post on human-elephant conflicts I mentioned about the habitat loss and growing human settlements in the fringe areas of the forest were responsible for death of men. Equally annoying is the fact that in some places in NE India, the maundering elephants either get killed or injured by the humans as the threats in nearby villages by elephants in search of food and water have assumed a serious problem. In particular, children and women are living in constant fear because the elephant attack may occur at time, particularly during the night.
According to the Union Environment Minister Babul Supriyo (June, 2019) in the last five years over 2,300 people in India were killed by elephants while tigers claimed over 200 lives. In this never-ending confrontation between wild animals and humans, last year alone 494 people hit the grave because of elephant attack. This does not include other wild animals like tiger, Jaguars, etc.
Recently I read with interest a report in ''The Hindu'' dated 25 August, 2019 that one thirds of the people killed by elephants between 2016 and 2019 in North Bengal were drunk. Invariably, they dug their own grave by chasing the wild beast in an inebriated state. This report was published in Science Journal Plos One.
This study took into account the profession, age and identity of the victims and reported 36% were drunk on local brew called Hania. The tea estate workers and marginalized farmers need to be educated about dangers of alcoholism and chasing wild beasts in a drunken-state. The study not only covered spatial
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| .man-elephant conflict. hindustantimes.com/ |
The study concluded that 74% of victims were males, 17% were tea estate workers, 30% farmers, 19% daily-workers. Villagers who went for gathering wood or attending nature's call constitute a small percentage of victims. Of particular interest is the elephant attacks are not regular; on the other hand, they are seasonal. Major attacks (54%) took place between May and July followed by 30% attacks between August and September.
The study found changes in land-use patterns. The forest cover is 446 sq.km, but, there has been some decline in tea gardens (reduced by 307 sq.km) and agricultural land (reduced by 128 sq.km). An important fact is the increase in the frequency of human-elephant conflict is due to increase in human settlement in the past decade by roughly 61 sq.km. It means interference in the animals' access to water sources and their major migration corridors
The elephant population in north Bengal is 446 and the number of death due to elephant attack is just 12% of total deaths in the country
The Ministry said to reduce the confrontation with elephants physical barriers are set-up such as barbed wire fence, solar-powered electric fence, bio-fencing using cactus, et. In some places boundary walls are erected to prevent the entry of wild animals into crop field. In some remote places in Tamil Nadu. the authorities erected chilly fesses to discourage elephants.
Recently, the West Bengal government acquired four special vehicles for tracking and tranquilizing elephants. An Elephant Movement Coordination Committee has been formed in the state that gives updates on elephant movement through text messages. In October, 2017, there was a proposal to to set up a unique elephant museum within the Buxa Tiger Reserve area in Alipurduar in north Bengal. The purpose of this museum by the government was to reduce the man-elephant conflicts in the state as much as possible and to eliminate unnecessary fear among human beings about tuskers,
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https://www.hindustantimes.com/kolkata/tackling-man-animal-conflict-bengal-govt-plans-elephant-museum/story-ND3PXSnQAnHdQYsEOo3J1J.html
