The unnatural deaths of elephants in the Indian state of Odisha appear to be never-ending, with the carcass of a giant elephant found on Saturday (September 3) morning.
The female elephant was found by some villagers in Hindol, in the Dhenkanal region. The carcass of a wild boar was also found nearby. Both deaths are believed to have been caused by electric barbed wire traps laid by poachers.
Death Week for Elephants in Odisha
This is the second elephant carcass found in Denkanaal in a week. On 28 August, the female elephant, about 25 years old, was found dead in the Khesra forest in Dencanal. Just the day before, on August 27, in the Satkosia forest reserve in Jagannathpur, in the Angul region, a tusked elephant fell into a trap set by poachers and was electrocuted.
On 24 August, during the same week, two female elephants died of electric shocks in Krishi Vigyan Kendra of Judia in the jurisdiction of Keonjhar Sadar.
Elephants in Odisha continue to die
Between June and August, Odisha reported 22 incidents of unnatural elephant deaths, most of which were linked to poaching.
Earlier this week, a three-person team from the Federal Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) visited three wildlife sanctuaries in Odisha as the number of elephant deaths there has increased.
The team is led by retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officials and the former Kerala Wildlife Conservation Foundation (PCCF) and includes Bilal Habib, a scientist from the Wildlife Research Institute of India (WII), and HV Girisha, co-director of the Wildlife Crime Control Agency (WCCB).
Most causes of death are caused by electric shock and poaching
Odisha recorded the deaths of 245 elephants in 2019-2022, of which 82 occurred in 2019-2020 and 77 in 2020-2021.
From 2010 to December 2020, of the 741 recorded elephant electrocutions in India, 133 occurred in the state. In July, Santosh Singh Saluja, a member of Parliament in Kantabanji, told the state parliament that 245 wild elephants had died unnaturally in Odisha in just three years.
Number of elephants in Odisha
According to the 2017 census, there are 1976 elephants in Odisha. However, environmentalists point out that the number of adult males is much smaller.
According to the Odisha Wildlife Society, in 2017, there were only 344 adult male gorillas, and in the 5 years since, at least 104 gorillas over the age of 15 have died of unnatural causes.
