Deadly turf wars between humans and hungry elephants in India's northeast have reached alarming proportions, say experts who plan an emergency meeting this week to tackle the problem.
Elephants have killed 239 people in Assam state in the past five years while 265 elephants have died during the same period, said a wildlife department report released on Friday ahead of the meeting.
The report gave no comparative figures. It said shrinking forests and encroachment on elephant territory by people have forced the animals to stray from their habitats into human settlements in search of food.
"The battle between humans and elephants is very serious," said M.C. Malakar, Assam's chief wildlife warden.
The meeting, to be held at Assam's Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary, is aimed at easing the conflict. Conservationists, wildlife wardens and village leaders will take part.
"Pachyderm herds are straying out of their habitats into human settlements looking for food," said Malakar in Guwahati, the state's main city.
Satellite imagery taken between 1996 and 2000 shows villagers encroached on some 280,000 hectares of thick forest in Assam, officials said.
The attitude of people toward the elephants has become less tolerant as the pachyderms have become an increasing problem for villagers, officials say.
Villagers often poison the marauding elephants while in the past they drove them away by beating drums or bursting firecrackers, they said.
In recent months, herds of wild elephants have been wreaking havoc in several parts of the state after straying into settlements and drinking fermented rice liquor brewed by villagers.
Assam has India's largest population of Asiatic elephants, estimated at around 5,000.
The report of the growing conflict between humans and wild elephants came as animal welfare groups called for an elephant ban in India's financial capital after a 25-year-old pachyderm died on Friday after being hit by a truck.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not