Lockdown: Animals on prowl in MP's human habitats; kill 13
Bhopal, Apr 17 () The coronavirus lockdown and theresulting silence seems to have triggered a spurt in theattacks on humans by wild animals as they are often foundentering the human habitats in and around the forest areas,officials in Madhya Pradesh said on Friday.
Since the lockdown came into force, wild animals,including leopards, tigers and elephants, have killed as manyas 13 people in different parts of the state, they said.
"The silence in the adjoining urban areas hasapparently given a mistaken sense of expanded territory to thewild animals. They venture out of their territory, sometimesmisled by prevailing pin-drop silence due to the lockdown," anofficial said.
The forest cover of Madhya Pradesh is 77,482.49 sq km,which is 25.14 per cent of the state's total geographicalarea, a central government report has said.
The last three weeks have marked unusual activity withwild animals increasing found entering the human habitats.
According to the forest officials, tigers andelephants have killed four persons each, while bears andleopards have claimed the lives of two persons each. A wildboar also attacked and killed one person.
All these incidents happened in and around the forestareas in Seoni, Shahdol, Ratlam, Anuppur, Sidhi and otherdistricts.
"Earlier, the wild animals did not venture beyondtheir territory due to human presence out there. They know thered line that was not to be crossed," Principal ChiefConservator of Forests (Wildlife) Rajesh Shrivastava told on Friday.
"But with no or subdued human presence around, theanimals are going beyond their territories," he added.
"Never ever in the past so many people have beenkilled by wild animals in such a short span of time," he said.
Shrivastava said that this rise in the attacks in andaround the wild sanctuaries and forest areas could beattributed to the lockdown and the silence it has created.
With roads and highways deserted, two groups of wildelephants crossed the state borders and walked into MP fromChhattisgarh and killed four persons three in Anuppur andone in Seoni in the last couple days, the forest officialsaid.th
The pack of tuskers, who killed three people inAnuppur, were chased back to their home, while efforts are onto drive away the other group of two in Seoni to Chhattisgarh,Shrivastava said.
He said that right now these two pachyderms are inMandla district, close to Chhattisgarh.
He confirmed that while elephants from Chhattisgarhkilled four persons, while nine others were mauled to death bytigers, bears, leopards, and a wild boar.
A leopard killed a nine-year-old tribal girl in Sidhidistrict when she went to to the area under the Sanjay Tigerreserve to collect mahua flowers on Friday morning, in-chargeof a nearby police post, P D Sonvanshi, said.
Tribals collect and cook mahua flowers and sell themto liquor breweries.
This was for the second time that leopard killed ahuman in last couple of days.
"In order to avoid human-animal conflict, we areasking people living in and around the forest areas to venturein a group. Thirteen people were killed such attacks. Most ofthem were alone when they went to collect the flowers," headded.
"We are also asking the people living in the forestareas to play loud music loudly on their mobile phones orcreate some noise to scare away the wild animals if they arearound," Shrivastava said. LAL MASNP NP