Bhubaneswar: As many as 171 people were killed in man-animal conflicts in Odisha in 2024-25, the annual Odisha Wildlife-2025 report has revealed. The report also says that 106 elephants were killed in the state between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025.
The elephant death figure is the highest recorded in Odisha since 2015-16. The figure is also 62% more than 2023-24, when 66 animals perished.
The report, published by the state government, reveals that 30 elephants were killed in deliberate electrocution while four died in retaliatory killing in 2024-25. The forest department is not certain about the causes of deaths of 17 more pachyderms during this period.
It has been reported that 842 elephants died in Odisha between 2015-16 and 2024-25. This figure includes 111 killed due to deliberate electrocution and 44 fatalities in accidental electrocution. Diseases claimed 231 animals over the last decade while 29 died in train accidents. A similar number were poached.
Another 231 elephants died due to infighting, falling off hilltops and lightning strikes. Only 87 of the animals are known to have died of natural causes.
The report has also presented a grim picture of human casualties and crop damage in the state. Of the 171 people killed in man-animal conflicts, 153 died in elephant attacks. Nearly 500 people were injured in wild animal attacks in the state in the last year. it has also been reported that 12,337 farmers sustained crop damage across an area of over 2,905 acres.
It has also been stated that 74,350 people were affected in human-wildlife conflict in 2024-25 as compared to 42,771 in 2015-16. The average per year figure for the last 10 years stands at 50,647.
The New Indian Express has quoted PCCF wildlife Prem Kumar Jha as saying that a number of measures have been initiated this year to bring down incidence of conflict in forest fringe villages and more compassionate grants have been disbursed to the families of the victims and farmers under Anukampa scheme.
Odisha has also hiked the compensation for death in wild animal attack from existing `6 lakh to `10 lakh, while Anukampa 2.0 was launched in June this year to speed up disbursement of compassionate grant to farmers suffering crop loss.
The number of villages covered under the Gaja Sathi scheme has also gone up from 1,177 villages in 2022-23 to 2,142 in 2024-25.
