File picture of a dead elephant killed either by villagers or by poachers

Bhubaneswar, May 7: The Orissa government has decided to create nine more elephant corridors and spend Rs 20 crore on raising the height of high-tension electric pylons to prevent jumbo casualties through electrocution.

The decisions followed a review of the ongoing elephant management programme by chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the secretariat last evening. The plan has been under implementation since 2009-10.

Official sources said more than 300 elephants had perished in Orissa in the last decade, a majority of them killed by poachers or electrocuted by high-tension wires. Orissa’s elephant population shrunk from 2,044 in 1979 to 1,886 in 2010.

“It was decided that Rs 20 crore would be provided to the state energy department to raise height of the high-tension wires supported by towers to prevent electrocution of elephants,” said Orissa’s chief wildlife warden P.N. Padhi following the review.

The officer said energy department officials would be held responsible for elephant deaths caused due to their negligence. Sources said 76 elephants had been electrocuted in Orissa in the last decade with 22 of these deaths being reported between 2008 and 2010.

The government’s other concern has been rampant erosion of the elephant corridors in Orissa. To address the problem the government has decided to develop 23 elephant corridors in different parts of the state. While work on 14 corridors, spread over 846.41sqkm, was under way, nine more had been identified, said Padhi.

Sources said while steps were being taken to develop the Similipal-Hadgarh-Kuldiha forests into an elephant reserve, measures would be initiated for capacity building of forest and wildlife officials to ensure effective management of the elephant corridors. They would be expected to effectively take on poachers.

The government has already constituted 58 elephant protection squads and deployed 106 elephant trackers under the Rs 53-crore elephant management plan. Last year, 98 waterbodies were created and solar fences were drawn over a length of 80km to protect the elephants. Trenches up to a length of 7.3km were also dug up around the elephant sanctuaries.

Sources said after being driven out of sanctuaries by habitat degradation and relentlessly stalked by poachers, elephants in Orissa were finding themselves caught in an ever-worsening conflict with humans with the scale of casualties rising on both sides.

While the jumbos have killed at least 480 human beings in the state in the past 10 years, poachers have claimed as many as 109 elephants since 1999. Many others have perished in accidents. Poaching is rampant with the Similipal Wildlife Sanctuary having become the happy hunting ground of elephant stalkers.