By our special Correspondent
Thrissur, March 29 (IVC) There was an unprecedented increase in the human wildlife conflicts in the State in the fiscal 2023-24.
With the killing of a 30-year old tribal woman yesterday at Meppadi in the Wynad district , the total number of lives lost in the Wynad district touched to 12, the official sources said.
The tribal woman Mini was trampled to death by a wild elephant in the Meppadi forest range under the South Wayanad Forest Division on March 28.
Mini wife of Suresh of the Kattunayakka tribal settlement was under the Mupainad Grama Panchayat. The mishap occurred near their settlement which is nearly 10 kms from the Vaduvanchal town in the district. The wild elephant attacked the couple while they were collecting honey from a tree.
Today a wild elephant entered the natural village at Thumburmuzhy near Chalakudy in Thrissur district and the animal damaged it and destroyed the door and window of the rest house , the official sources said.
In another incident in kurachira in the Wayanad district today , a wild elephant faced by running the travellers and they had a miraculous escape.
The Chief Wildlife Warden today issued an order to send the bison which appeared in the Spring Valley in Idukki district back to the forest safely. If failed to send the animal to forest, the Captor gun application to tranquilize it may be resorted, the order said.
The incidents t of wild elephants ,tigers, leopards , bears, and wild gaurs entering the human habitats and killing persons and destroying their properties and crops are on the increase unprecedently, the official sources said.
The human-wildlife conflicts have claimed 95 lives in the in2023-24 in the State. There were 8873 incidents, including 98 human causalities during 2022-23 according to the Economic Review 2022-23. Wayanad has been on top of the list with 69 deaths reported in between 2011 and 2024.
In the light of the escalating cases, the Kerala Government decided this month to declare human-animal conflict as a State-specific disaster. Kerala is the first State in the country to do so. Official sources said adding earlier the responsibility of managing such conflicts was with the Forest department. Human-wildlife interactions are multifaceted with temporal and spatial spec cities. Hardly any serious conflicts are reported from a rich wildlife area such as Periyar Tiger Reserve while most parts of Wayanad and Idukki are contrasting, according to the Chief Scientist, Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), T V Sajeev.
“The reasons include forest degeneration, hydrology of forests, impact of the floods in 2018 and 2019, proliferation of resorts on the forest fringes, behavioral changes of the wildlife and invasion of non-edible alien plants and trees”. Sajeev added.
Fragmentation of wildlife habitats is a major leading to the conflicts. The causes for the conflicts are mostly location-specific, Dr P S Esa former Director of the KFRI said.