Human-elephant Conflict Escalates at Numaligarh-Morangi Area in Golaghat

A Correspondent

Numaligarh: Farmers and villagers in the Numaligarh-Morangi and Thuramukh-Rangajan region of Golaghat face jumbo threats on a day-to-day basis, resulting in damage to crop yields, destruction of their homes, and, in some cases, even a death in the family. Nearby forests and grasslands are disappearing at an ever-increasing rate to accommodate the growing human population.

Land, that was once a critical habitat for Asian elephants and hundreds of other wildlife species, has now been converted to farmland and villages. Elephant herds often leave their preferred habitats to search for food in human-dominated areas, sometimes leading to destruction and even human fatalities. A herd comprising almost 50 to 60 wild elephants has been creating havoc at various places of Morangi mouza since the past several days. On Sunday night, the herd entered the Charibhelu and Bukhial-Napam area and crushed many houses of the villagers. Houses of Ramesh Baakti and Babu Rajuwar of Charibhelu were severely damaged by the elephants.

The elephant herd moved towards Bukhial-Napam area later that night and entered paddy fields, damaging a large portion of rice seedlings. Despite the rising human-elephant conflict in the State, the government has not done enough or does not have adequate financial resources to reduce the conflicts. Compensation for damage or casualties is often inconsistent and insufficient. Crop raiding is spatial as well as seasonal. Generally this coincides with the time of harvest and most raids occur during the winter months. Duration of raiding by elephants varied between 3 to 4 months across the villages of Golaghat. But this year something unusual happened, as stated by Tuskers Task Force, a bio-diversity conservation NGO of Golaghat.

The secretary general of TTF said, “As per our assessment there might be not more than 30 residential elephants in the Nambor-Doigrung reserve forests. Crop raiders numbering almost 100 and divided into multiple herds use to come in the crop harvest season only. They remain in the fringes of forest/ protected areas for 3 to 4 months (from November to January/ February) and raid the nearby paddy fields, mostly during nights. After that they leave for their preferred habitats in far Karbi-Hills and protected areas of Kaziranga National Park. But we have noticed that the elephants did not return this year. We have seen multiple herds grazing in the fringe areas like Dahoni of Nambor-Doigrung WLS. We saw two different herds in the month of May in the Dahoni area and none of the herds seemed to be local or residential of Nambor-Doigrung WLS. Since then we have detected constant presence of these herds roaming in the Numaligarh-Morangi area. If our assessment is not wrong, the total number of elephants at present, divided into multiple herds, will be around 150. It is a matter of grave concern and we are afraid that presence of such a large number of elephants in the area will attract more conflicts in the coming days.”

The government has failed to implement a long-term management plan that involves NGOs and local residents. The NGO further stated that a mitigation strategy involving various government agencies, NGOs and local people is a must for reducing the human-elephant conflict.

Also Read: Tuskers Task Force to Focus on Minimizing Human-elephant Conflict

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