PrashantNews
There seems to be no end in sight to the raging human-wildlife conflicts in Uttarakhand with experts saying the problem is very complex.
In the past 2-3 days, five persons were killed in different attacks in the hill state which is famous for its wildlife like tigers and elephants. Sompal (55) died when he was trampled by an elephant in Bugguwala area in Haridwar on Thursday. In another incident on Thursday, one contractual employee of state forest department was killed in Ramnagar area.
On Wednesday, an elderly couple was trampled to death by a wild elephant at Jollygrant area in Dehradun district, police said. The couple has been identified as Rajendra Panwar (70) and his wife Sushila (65) who had gone to the Thano forest area for collecting fodder.
In another incident, Shanti Devi (49) was killed by a tiger at Betalghat area in Nainital district on Tuesday.
A tiger was found dead in mysterious circumstances in Champawat area in Kumaon region, forest officials said on Thursday. The body of the six year old tiger has been sent for postmortem for detail investigations to ascertain cause of the death. Top forest officials remained tightlipped over the incident.
Richarad Singh, a blogger, was injured after he was attacked by a wild boar in Dharchula area of Pithoragarh district on Tuesday.
A wild elephant caused a scare at a toll plaza on Haridwar-Dehradun national highway on Thursday. After wandering for nearly for few minutes, the elephant went back into the nearby jungles.
In nearby Haridwar town, elephants are venturing into roads and lanes frequently. “Few days ago, the elephant broke the main wall of our house,” said Rishab Kumar, a native of Haridwar.
According to forest department, over a dozen people in Uttarakhand have been killed in wild animal attacks last year.
The fear of leopard attacks has led to school closures in several areas in the past few months in Pauri and other areas.
The Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has conducted several studies to find a solution to minimize such attacks but the problem remained far from over. “This is a complex issue which cannot be solved easily,” said a wildlife expert.
On the contrary, top forest officials said the state forest department has launched several initiatives to minimize these conflicts.”If you compare data, the casualties in such conflicts in the last year were less,” said Samir Sinha, the former chief wildlife warden.