Guwahati:

A domesticated elephant is at the centre of a cross-border ownership claim.

Chandratara had inadvertently crossed the border and allegedly strayed into the Indian territory from Bangladesh a couple of months back, according to one of the claims.

It was found in a border village in Tripura’s Unakoti district on September 11 last year.

Atikur Rahman, a Bangladeshi, has claimed it belonged to him and forwarded photographs and ownership documents of the elephant to the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Tripura Forest Department through his relatives in India.

Two others from India have made similar claims.

A local court will the case on January 21.

Legal complexities and the forest department’s custody of the elephant have prevented the animal’s immediate repatriation.

At least 350 elephants died under mysterious circumstances in Botswana in 2020, sparking global concerns while leaving scientists puzzled about the reason for the mortalities. Four years later, a study conducted at King’s College London may have finally unearthed the answer. As per the research, a “toxic brew” of open water tainted by a species of cyanobacteria that releases cyanotoxins, which contaminated the watering holes in the region, led to mass elephant deaths.

Combining satellite data and spatial analysis the study revealed that as many as 20 watering holes in the Okavango Delta had been contaminated across roughly 6,000 sq km. After drinking, elephants were estimated to have walked an average of 16.5 km from the toxic waterholes and died within about 88 hours of exposure.

“Our results highlight that seasonal, predominantly rain-fed pans, rather than the permanent waterbodies (i.e., lakes, rivers, and lagoons) within the Panhandle, were the likely source of cyanotoxin exposure,” said Davide Lomeo, the lead scientist of the study.

Notably, the dead elephants were of varying ages, with tusks intact which led to scientists ruling out death by poaching. Additionally, no carcasses of other wildlife or livestock species were observed at the time of one of the aerial surveys.

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What promoted algae growth?

Not all cyanobacteria or blue-green algae is toxic but some cyanobacteria produce a type of deadly algal blooms (HABs) in standing water. As per the study, the shift from a dry 2019 (the driest year in decades in the region) to an extremely wet 2020, may have prompted the unprecedented algal growth due to the resuspension of significant amounts of sediments and nutrients from the ground.

“Scientists believe that the production of cyanotoxins is related to certain environmental triggers, for example, sudden rise in water temperature, nutrient loading, salinity,” said Mr Lomeo.

Scientists have warned that such incidents may become frequent in the future owing to climate change.

“Southern Africa is projected to become drier and hotter under climate changes, and as a result, waterholes across this region will likely be drier for more months of the year. Our findings point to the potential negative effects on water quantity and quality, and the catastrophic repercussions on animals, this could have.

The study underscores the severe ecological consequences of toxic algal accumulation while emphasising the critical need for water quality surveillance across water bodies, including the smallest ones.

Bhopal:

An elderly man was killed in an attack by wild elephants on Saturday outside the buffer zone of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Madhya Pradesh, where 10 jumbos died in three days this week, an official said.

The deceased was identified as Ramratan Yadav (65), he said.

“The wild elephants trampled him to death when he went to answer nature’s call outside the reserve early this morning,” the BTR official said.

The incident took place in Devra village, Umaria Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Vivek Singh told PTI over phone.

Ten elephants have died in the BTR in a span of three days earlier this week. On Tuesday, four wild elephants were found dead in Sankhani and Bakeli under Khitoli range of the reserve (BTR), while four died on Wednesday and two on Thursday.

Only three elephants, out of the 13-member herd, are alive now, officials have said earlier.

When asked whether the man was killed by the remaining three pachyderms, the official said it was hard to ascertain their identity.

It will only be known after investigation, he added.

Another ground duty official of the BTR said the three remaining jumbos from the herd were seen moving towards the forest area in Katni district.

“This movement is unusual as it had never been found in the past in the BTR,” the forest official said.

The BTR is spread across Umaria and Katni districts in eastern Madhya Pradesh.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kochi:

A male elephant brought for a Telugu movie shoot panicked during the filming after another tusker bumped into it from behind and ran into the nearby forest near Kothamangalam here a day ago, forest officials said on Saturday.

The elephant was found more than 12 hours later from the forest, officials said.

The 57-year-old elephant, Puthuppally Sadhu, could not be found on Friday as the incident occurred close to evening and it was difficult to search for it in the forest due to bad visibility, a senior forest official said.

“The incident occurred around 4.30 pm on Friday as the shoot was coming to an end and another elephant bumped into this one (Sadhu) from behind. It (Sadhu) got scared and ran into the forest.

“We searched the forest till bad light and poor visibility forced us to discontinue it. We commenced search operations Saturday morning and found the elephant,” he said.

The tusker was given food and water and brought out of the forest safely, the official said.

“There are no visible signs of any injury on the elephant and it appears to be healthy. It will undergo a medical examination,” the official said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

In a terrifying incident, a US tourist from New Mexico was killed by an elephant in Zambia after it attacked her vehicle during a safari drive on Wednesday. Officials reported that the elephant pulled Juliana Gle Tourneau, 64, out of the vehicle and trampled her, Metro reported. The incident occurred near the Maramba Cultural Bridge in Livingstone when the group had stopped due to traffic caused by an elephant herd.

She was taken to a clinic in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, where she was declared dead on arrival. According to a police statement, her injuries included deep wounds on the right shoulder blade and forehead, a fractured left ankle, and a slightly depressed chest.

Ms Tourneau died around 5.50 pm ”after being knocked from a parked vehicle which had stopped due to traffic caused by elephants around the Maramba Cultural Bridge”, Southern Province Police Commissioner Auxensio Daka told Zambian station ZNBC on Friday.

Officials did not say whether anyone else was injured or what led to the elephant’s aggression.

This tragic event marks the second fatal elephant attack on a US tourist in Zambia this year. In March, Gail Mattson, a 79-year-old woman from Minnesota, was killed in a similar incident during a game drive in Zambia’s Kafue National Park. An elephant charged and overturned the truck, resulting in her death and injuries to five others. 

In response to these incidents, Zambian authorities have urged tourists to exercise extreme caution while observing wildlife. Similar concerns have been raised in neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe and Botswana, which have also reported increasing elephant populations and deadly attacks in recent years.

According to experts, human deaths are rare in encounters with elephants. ”This is a freak accident. It’s probably just some sort of coming together of unfortunate circumstances that led to this,” Nikhil Advani, a senior director at the World Wildlife Fund, a nonprofit that works on environmental protection and conservation efforts told the New York Times. 

Jamshedpur:

 A 71-year-old man was trampled to death by a wild elephant in a village in Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum district when he was on his way to cast his vote for the Lok Sabha polls on Saturday, police said.

The man was a resident and the ‘pradhan’ (village head) of Gobarbani village within the limits of the Baharagora police station in Jamshedpur Lok Sabha constituency.

The incident happened around 90 km away from Jamshedpur city when he was passing through the Gobarbani jungle, a police officer said.

The victim, Surendra Nath Hansdah, a resident of Gobarbani under Muturkham panchayat, left home around 6.30 am to exercise his franchise.

He was heading towards 135- Dholabeda polling centre when the pachyderm attacked him, the victim’s son, Dipendra Hansdah, wrote in his statement, the police said.

The elderly man made an attempt to flee but he was trampled to death 100 meters away from the polling centre, his son Dipendra Hansda told PTI.

Villagers rushed to the spot and informed the forest department.

The department officials and police personnel arrived on the spot and recovered the body, which was returned to family members following an autopsy at Ghatsila Sadar Hospital, he said.

The forest department has handed over Rs 25,000 as immediate relief to perform the last rites of the victim, Hansda added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Pathanamthitta:

A 53-year-old man was attacked and killed by a wild elephant when he tried to chase it away after it strayed into the surroundings of his house near the forest in Thulappally here on Monday, police said.

This is the fifth death reported in the conflict between humans and wild elephants in Kerala in the past three months.

Biju, a local auto driver, came out of his house with his wife Daisy after hearing the trumpets of an elephant outside. The animal grabbed him using its trunk and threw him to the ground twice, said Daisy, an eye witness.

The same elephant had strayed into the area and created trouble the other day, she claimed.

Recounting the incident, Daisy said that the animal was seen trying to uproot a coconut tree in the surrounding area and moved towards him quickly after trumpeting multiple times and added that she stepped back and moved inside her house.

“We went out together, hearing the sounds of the elephant near our home early in the morning. The first time, we came back home together. But he went to the road near the house again as the elephant was trumpeting,” Daisy told reporters here.

The teary-eyed woman said the animal rushed towards Biju suddenly and grabbed him by its trunk, throwing him to the ground twice.

It later ran away into the forest, she said.

“As there was no response, I went to the spot and saw him lying motionless on the floor,” Daisy added. A police team rushed to the spot and shifted Biju’s body to Kottayam Medical College.

Later in the day, Health Minister Veena George visited Biju’s house and consoled his family members. She assured them that the government would provide adequate compensation to the family as quickly as possible.

Local residents staged an intense protest in the area, demanding compensation for the victim’s family and a job for a family member as a permanent solution to address the loss they suffered due to the wild elephant attack.

In a discussion held between people’s representatives and district and forest officials, a compensation of Rs 10 lakh was decided to be handed over to the killed man’s family today itself.

Lok Sabha MP Anto Antony who participated in the meeting, later told reporters that as per the decision taken during the meeting, the district collector would recommend the government to grant Rs 50 lakh to the family as compensation.

“One of the family members of Biju will be given a temporary job at the forest office here immediately. The recommendation for a permanent job will be submitted to the government,” he said.

A decision was also taken to erect solar fencing and trenches in the fringe areas bordering the forest and a decision would be implemented at the earliest in this regard, the MP added.

Kerala has witnessed a series of deaths of people due to the attack of wild elephants in recent months.

A tribal woman was trampled to death by a wild elephant deep inside a forest area bordering Wayanad and Malappuram districts on March 28.

A forest watcher, 50-year-old Paul, was trampled to death by a wild elephant while he was on his way to work at Kuruva in Wayanad district on February 16.

A week before that, another Wayanad resident Aji (42), was trampled to death by a radio-collared elephant in Mananthavady in the district, triggering massive protests.

In January, an estate watcher, Lakshmanan (65) was killed by a wild tusker at Tholpetty, also in the same district.

In central Kerala’s Idukki district, which is also heavily forested and mountainous, a woman identified as Indira Ramakrishnan was killed in an elephant attack in the first week of March.

Prajeesh (36) was mauled by a tiger in December last year near a forest area in Vakeri in Wayanad.

The Kerala government has been seeking to amend the Wildlife (Protection) Act, citing challenges faced by the state in dealing with instances of wild animals encroaching into human settlements.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

India has at least 150 elephant corridors spanning 15 range-states across four elephant-bearing regions. West Bengal topps the list with 26 such land strips, according to a new Union Environment Ministry report.

The central government’s 2010 Elephant Task Force report (Gajah report) listed 88 corridors in the country.

The latest report, titled “Elephant Corridors of India”, also highlights that the intensity of elephant use has increased in 59 of these corridors, remained stable in 29 and decreased in 29 others. Of the total corridors, 15 have been impaired and require restoration efforts to restore functionality. Information regarding the current use of 18 corridors by elephants was unavailable.

An elephant corridor is a land strip facilitating the movement of elephants between two or more viable habitat patches. Corridors leading the animals away from forest habitats into the human domain without connecting to viable habitat patches are not considered true elephant corridors.

Demographic isolation and genetic viability concerns pose an extinction risk to elephant populations. Therefore, safeguarding elephant corridors is a key conservation strategy, the report states.

According to the last estimation conducted in 2017, there are around 30,000 elephants in India, which account for 60 per cent of the animal’s global population.

The latest report is an outcome of a collaborative effort between the Union Environment Ministry’s Project Elephant and state forest departments, with technical support from the Wildlife Institute of India. Ground validation of the 150 elephant corridors across 15 states took nearly two years to complete.

West Bengal leads with the highest number of elephant corridors in India, accounting for over 17 per cent of the total such land patches in the country, the report states.

Among the four elephant-bearing regions in India, the east-central region reported the highest number of elephant corridors at 52, followed by the northeast region with 48 and the southern region with 32. The northern region has the lowest number of elephant corridors at 18.

Of the 150 reported elephant corridors, 126 are within the political boundaries of states while 19 are located across two states. There are also six trans-national corridors between India and Nepal, primarily in Uttar Pradesh.

The report says that there are states where elephants have recently expanded their ranges. These include the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra adjoining Chhattisgarh, southern Maharashtra adjoining Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh – where elephants presently occur in Bandhavgarh and Sanjay tiger reserves – and northern Andhra Pradesh, where elephants move in from Odisha.

In these states, assessing the long-term viability of habitats to support elephant populations and adopting a data-driven approach to identify corridors is crucial.

The report states data on elephant movement remains limited in many northeastern states that host relatively small elephant populations. Collaborative efforts between state forest departments and Project Elephant could clarify the corridor status in these areas in the coming years. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)