In Chhattisgarh, 204 people have died in elephant attacks in the last three years and 45 elephants were also killed during the same period, according to the state forest minister. In a reply in the state Assembly to a question by Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) MLA Dharamjit Singh, Forest Minister Mohammad Akbar said that 204 people died in the elephant attacks in 2018, 2019 and 2020. A total of 97 people were also injured during the same period.
During the same period 66,582 cases of damage to crops by elephants, 5047 cases of damage to houses and 3151 cases of damage to other properties have been reported, the minister said. The state government has paid Rs 57.81 crore as compensation to the affected people in these three years.
The worst affected districts, which witnessed the most clashes between elephants and humans included Surguja, Jashpur, Surajpur, Raigarh and Korba.
To cut the losses and to save the lives of both residents and the elephants, the state government in 2007 constructed Lemru Elephant Reserve in Korba, which has a thick forest range of 450 square kilometres.
The human-animal conflict has become a regular incident in Chhattisgarh in recent years as humans are infiltrating into forest often disturbing the territory of the elephants. The government has been holding several rounds of discussions over the years to expand the area of the elephant reserve but there has been no progress in this regard due to a negative response from the local residents in the forest area.
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