NET Web Desk

While a whopping 1160 tuskers were killed in India in the last 10 years up to December 31, 2020, Assam has contributed to the list immensely.

A recent RTI reply by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has revealed Assam’s dismal performance in safeguarding the giant mammal. In the last decade as many as 129 elephants were killed of electrocution in Assam out of 741 in the entire country.

Assam stands second in elephant death by electrocution. Odisha and Karnataka are at the top with 133 elephant death by electric shock each. Assam also stands at the top when it comes to killing of the pachyderm by train hit and poisoning. 62 elephants were massacred by train in Assam during the last decade and 32 were killed by poisoning. In West Bengal, number of elephants killed when hit by a moving train is 57 which is second highest in the country. Odisha has witnesses 15 death of the revered animal by poisoning.

As far as the data from the entire country is concerned, 741 elephants were killed by electrocution, 186 by train hit, 169 by poaching and 64 by poisoning. Odisha recorded highest 49 killing by poaching followed by Kerala. According to an estimation done by the forest ministry India has 29964 elephant population. A permanent coordination committee has also been set up by Union Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Forest to address the issue of elephants coming in the way of fast moving train.