Bhuabaneswar: August 12 is celebrated as World Elephant Day all over the world since 2012 to create awareness among the people about the need to protect elephants.
Odisha did its bit too. On this occasion, a special programme for the elephants was organised in Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP). The zoo authority gave bananas, coconuts and other fruits to the elephants as a treat.
There are eight elephants in NZP, out of them four, Gori, Kamala, Juli and Mama were brought to the celebration venue.
Though it is a holiday in NZP today, many people have thronged the zoo to see the elephants.
Why Is The Day Celebrated?
Elephant Day is observed to create awareness for the preservation and protection of the pachyderms.
This day was first conceived in 2011 by Michael Clark and Patricia Sims, two filmmakers from Canada, as well as Sivaporn Dardarananda, Secretary-General of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation, Thailand.
Records of the last few years show that elephants are not safe in whole world.
As per the Great Elephant Census report, targeting of wild elephants has resulted in 30 per cent decrease in the population of African elephants between 2007 and 2014.
Reasons Of Man-Animal Conflict
One of the major reasons for man-animal conflict has been deterioration in the quality of forests. People are cutting trees selectively in the natural habitat of the animals to meet their food and shelter needs. Since the dwindling forests no longer provide the requisite food, the mammals are entering human habitations.
In the last two years, though 156 elephants have died in Odisha, their number has also gone up. In three years, their number has grown by 22.
Some more statistics
Around 61 people have died in elephant attacks each year in the state.
As many as 699 people died in elephant attack from 2006-07 and 2016-17.
In 2012, the number of elephants was 1930.
In 2015, it reached 1954.
In 2017, their number was 1967.
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