The Hindu : National : North Bengal elephants are now GPS-collared

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Wednesday, Nov 30, 2005

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North Bengal elephants are now GPS-collared

Marcus Dam

Exercise to cope with man-elephant conflict

KOLKATA : Two more elephants in north Bengal have been fitted with global positioning system (GPS) equipment, bringing the total number in the region to be thus uniquely radio-collared in the country to four.

The "intensely high levels" of human-elephant conflict in north Bengal, where 50 persons die on an average each year, led the authorities to try the exercise. The region has about 500 elephants. Only on Sunday night a rogue tusker killed three persons including a woman in the Baikunthapur forest area in Jalpaiguri district.

Prof. Raman Sukumar, Chairman, Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, who is involved in the implementation of the scheme, said on Tuesday: "The idea is to make available to wildlife managers information that will enable them to anticipate man-elephant conflicts. It has the function of an early warning system, with the managers, in turn, alerting the region's anti-depredation squads against possible attacks."

In contrast to the figures for north Bengal, the number of deaths caused by human-elephant conflict in southern India, where the elephant population is nearly 12,000, is 30 to 40 a year on an average.

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