The number of human deaths in encounters with wild elephants in Odisha has increased to 149 during the year 2023-24, recording an all-time high human casualties in the current fiscal.
A woman identified as Ituwari Bhadra was trampled by an elephant in Bonei Forest Division of Sundargarh district on March 7 taking the total human toll to 149 in 249 encounters with elephants. It surpassed the previous record of 148 deaths in 2022-23.
“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 reaching an all-time high of 148 in 2022-23,” said Biswajit Mohanty, a wildlife expert and secretary to Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO), an environmental pressure group.
