Bhubaneswar: The distressed elephants of Odisha face an uncertain and dangerous future. Once the pride of Odisha, elephants now see the state as a graveyard.
Odisha loses more elephants than most elephant-bearing states even though the elephant population in some states is two- or three-times higher. The threats to elephants in Odisha are similar to those identified across many parts of India and South Asia.
Elephants may be dying in huge numbers or ravaging new areas for food, but wildlife authorities in Odisha are clueless about it as they gave two back-to-back biennial census on the jumbos a miss.
The last census was conducted in 2017, which pegged the numbers at 1976, 22 more than the 2015 census.
Since it has skipped two biennial censuses (2019 and 2021), it is in dark about how many calves male or females or how many adult elephants (female or tusker) are there in the states elephant habitat.
On average, 46 elephants died every year between 2000 and 2010 but since 2010, the average annual yearly casualty rate of elephants has been pegged at 70 per year, the WSO claimed. They and other wildlife bodies say around 1497 elephants have died in the state since 1990. The massive elephant counting exercise is carried in summer, mostly in May as during this time, better sighting is possible, officials said.
Since the biennial census due this year in May hasn’t been done, it is not likely anytime later this year, sources said.
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