Human casualties in Odisha due to encounters with wild elephants saw an all-time high of 149 in 2023-24 so far when a tribal woman was killed by a tusker on Saturday morning in Sundargarh district, surpassing the 148 deaths recorded in the year that ended in March 2023, officials aware of the development said.

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A woman named Itwari Badra of Kusumundi village in Sundargarh district was trampled to death by a tusker that had strayed into the village in search of food, the officials said, declining to be named. She was trying to run away from the rampaging animal when it dragged her with its trunk before trampling her. She died on the spot.

As many as 1,701 humans in 16 states were killed by elephants from 2020-21 to 2023-24, and Odisha had recorded 148 such deaths in 2022-23, which was the highest for the year in India, according to data presented in the Rajya Sabha by the Union environment ministry in December.

Of the 149 deaths, Dhenkanal district bore the brunt, recording 31 casualties, followed by Angul (24), Sundargarh (22), Keonjhar (18) and Mayurbhanj (10).

“In 2019-20, human deaths by elephants rose sharply, crossing 100 to reach 115 deaths. Since then, the human fatalities have been on the rise consistently, crossing 100 deaths each year and reaching an all-time high of 148 in 2022-23,” said Biswajit Mohanty, a wildlife activist.

“The rising death toll year after year only shows that the state government is just not interested in saving lives of innocent people, who are becoming victims due to lack of migration corridor of the elephants,” Mohanty added. “Odisha holds the dubious record of the maximum number of human deaths among all states despite being home to a lower number of elephants compared to Karnataka, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.”

Between 2019-20 and 2021-22, 1,579 people were killed in the country by elephants, according to environment ministry data. Odisha topped the list with 322 deaths, followed by Jharkhand (291), West Bengal (240), Assam (229), Chhattisgarh (183) and Tamil Nadu (152).

As many as 392 elephants have died in the past five years since 2019-20, Mohanty said, of which 137 deaths were unnatural. The state forest department could not ascertain the reason behind 94 elephant deaths due to decomposed bodies.

“The Rengali canal network in Angul and Dhenkanal districts has disrupted age-old movement paths and corridors of local elephants, sparking attacks on villages and raids on farms, leading to unfortunate human deaths. There are few crossing bridges over these canals, as a result of which elephants are trapped in small pockets and are forced to climb the steep incline walls of the canals,” Mohanty said.

“There has been a 10 times growth in quarries and industries in Dhenkanal as per satellite imagery of 2011 versus 2021, which has a strong correlation with the jump in human deaths,” he said, adding that another reason behind elephants straying into human habitations was widespread felling of palm trees that provide fodder to the pachyderms in the monsoon months.

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Earlier this week, the forest department launched special protection vehicles named Rakshak to rescue wild animals within an hour of a man-elephant conflict in 18 forest divisions of Odisha.

“Our main objective is to ensure the safety of all, be it wildlife or humans. Such a project has been implemented in Tamil Nadu,” said Susanta Nanda, principal chief conservator of forests, Wildlife. “The rapid response teams will reach the spot in half an hour to one hour.”