Bhubaneswar, May 6: The incident of a bear straying into the town of Titilagarh in Balangir district yesterday and injuring eight people has restarted the debate on human-animal conflict with forest officials and environmentalists attributing the phenomenon mainly to habitat destruction.

"Loss of habitat forces wild animals to stray into human habitations leading to conflict. This is particularly true for elephants that are always on the move. In case of bears, there could be other factors such as poachers provoking them by stealing their cubs," said Chilika divisional forest officer Bikash Ranjan Dash.

Sources in the forest department said human-animal conflict in the state had resulted in the death of 454 people and 2,261 animals, including 388 elephants, in the past six years. Poaching, poisoning, accidents and electrocution have been the major reasons of elephant deaths.

So far human casualties are concerned, while elephants killed 362 persons in the past six years, other animals killed 92. Besides elephants, bears, leopards and wild boars have been involved in cases of human-animal conflict during this period. Elephants also damaged 4,405 houses and crops over 69,071 acres.

Hunters and wildlife smugglers killed 28 elephants during this time. Other than that, nine died from poisoning and 60 in road and train accidents. Electrocution claimed 50 more elephant lives.

Environmentalist Sailabala Padhi said habitat loss was the single biggest factor responsible for human-animal conflict in the state. "Forests are disappearing at a fast pace. This is making wild animals uneasy and they are straying into villages and towns, especially the ones located close to the forests. Animals are also facing problems of food and water shortage in the wild," said Padhi, urging the government to take urgent steps in this regard.

Sources in the forest department said the government was implementing a special plan to contain the conflict between humans and elephants with a focus on to create new elephants corridors and restore the old ones that had eroded over the years.

"At least 10 old corridors will be restored, while some new ones would be created with adequate provision of food and water facilities for the animals," said an official.

Sources said the forest officials would also focus on reducing human intervention in forests, especially in the wildlife sanctuaries.