India lost 528 elephants due to 'unnatural causes' in 5 years, most from electrocution: Govt

New Delhi: India lost 528 elephants in the last five years due to unnatural causes, including poaching, poisoning, electrocution, and train accidents, the government informed Parliament on Monday.

In response to a question by BJP MPs Jayanta Kumar Roy and Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, Union Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh told the Lok Sabha that 392 elephants died from electrocution and 73 were killed in train accidents during this period.

Fifty elephants were killed by poachers and 13 succumbed to poisoning, he said.

According to the government data tabled in the Lok Sabha, 71 elephants died due to electrocution in Odisha, 55 in Assam, 52 in Karnataka, 49 in Tamil Nadu, 32 in Chhattisgarh, 30 in Jharkhand, and 29 in Kerala.

Assam and Odisha recorded 22 and 16 elephant deaths in train accidents. Poachers killed 17 pachyderms in Odisha, 14 in Meghalaya, and 10 in Tamil Nadu.

Ten elephants were poisoned in Assam, two in Chhattisgarh, and one in West Bengal.

According to the last elephant census conducted in 2017, India has 29,964 elephants, which is around 60 per cent of their global population.

Data presented in Parliament last week revealed that human-elephant conflict resulted in 2,853 human deaths in India over the last five years, with the number of fatalities reaching a five-year high of 628 in 2023.

"Elephants caused" 587 human deaths in 2019, 471 in 2020, 557 in 2021, 610 in 2022, and 628 in 2023.

The data revealed that Odisha recorded 624 such deaths during this period, Jharkhand 474, West Bengal 436, Assam 383, Chhattisgarh 303, Tamil Nadu 256, Karnataka 160, and Kerala 124.

The minister said the management of wildlife habitats is primarily the responsibility of state governments and Union Territory administrations.

He said the central government provides financial and technical support under the centrally sponsored scheme 'Project Tiger & Elephant' for the protection of animals, their habitats and corridors, addressing human-animal conflict, and for the welfare of captive elephants.

In February 2021, the ministry issued an advisory on dealing with human-wildlife conflict, recommending coordinated inter-departmental action, identification of conflict hotspots, adherence to standard operating procedures, and establishment of rapid response teams.

In June 2022, the ministry issued guidelines to states and Union Territories on managing human-wildlife conflicts, including damage to crops.

The guidelines promote the cultivation of crops in forest fringe areas that are unpalatable to wild animals, and the use of agroforestry models incorporating cash crops such as chillies, lemongrass, and khus grass, mixed with tree and shrub species.

In coordination with state forest departments, the ministry has also ground-validated 150 elephant corridors across 15 elephant range states and has asked states and Union Territories to take necessary steps to protect and conserve these corridors.

The power ministry issued guidelines to all DISCOMs (distribution companies) and TRANSCOs (transmission companies) in September 2022 to mitigate the impact of power transmission lines and other power infrastructure on elephants and other wildlife.

A permanent coordination committee has been established between the Railways Ministry and the Environment Ministry to prevent elephant deaths in train accidents.