Chasing away elephants with guns...

2015-01-06 46

Chasing away elephants from near human habitations with the use of guns, loud shouts and disturbances such as fire crackers. If the elephants come near, they could be poisoned or killed through the use of traps, by the villagers. The forest department personnel are trying to prevent human-animal conflict here in Assam, India.

Chasing away elephants with guns...

Chasing away wild elephants around Kaziranga National Park. Kaziranga is a vast expanse of tall elephant grass, marshland, and dense tropical moist broadleaf forests, crisscrossed by four major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, and the park includes numerous small bodies of water. Kaziranga has been the theme of several books, songs, and documentaries. The park celebrated its centennial in 2005 after its establishment in 1905 as a reserve forest.

Destruction caused by wild elephants in Assam! Life and property are often threatened by the close proximity of human habitations to wild elephant habitat in Assam, India. Small groups of wild rampaging elephants often crush huts and village abodes in villages that are close to elephant forest habitats. Human conflict in the wild is a frequent occurrence, and causes much bad blood towards conservation among village communities, as they don't understand the prerogatives of conservation and the need to conserve wild populations and habitats... They often look at wildlife protection as a preserve of the elite and a way of making money for the government!

Wild elephants rampaged through this village, destroying the tenements. Oftentimes, traditional corridors that have been used by wild animals have been encroached by human habitation and the animals have not taken kindly to this... and the humans don't seem to understand.

Another reason is that wild male tuskers go into musth every once in a while and do untold damage in an irrational fashion. Some elephants even get drunk of rice beer after smelling the fragrance of the fermentation from the forest itself, being thus attracted to villages for this...

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