Blood On Ivory

• Assam and Meghalaya have an estimated elephant population of 7,000.
  
• 2,80,000 ha of forest area have been cleared between 1996-2000.
  
• 18,000 ha across 10 national parks, sanctuaries encroached by humans.
  
• Elephants are forced by shrinking forest cover to stray into human settlements for food, often standing crop.
  
• In October, a 100-strong herd left a trail of destruction in Assam's Majuli island.

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Retaliation on rampaging elephants by villagers has shocked conservationists. Nineteen wild elephants were poisoned to death in Sonitpur district in 2001 after they feasted on crops and tore down houses. As many as 265 elephants have died across Assam between 2001 and 2006, many of them victims of vengeance by angry humans. Conservation groups have blamed forest and wildlife officials for aggravating the man-elephant conflict through insensitive handling of the problem. "Officials encourage people to chase away elephants by bursting crackers and using flaming torches. This makes the elephants more agitated," says Soumyadeep Dutta, who heads Nature's Beckon, a leading conservation group in Assam. "We must let the elephants feed on standing crops and compensate villagers for crop loss until afforestation schemes take off and yield results," Dutta recommends.

However, such out-of-the-box thinking rarely finds any takers within the bureaucracy. For now, fireworks are the only potent instrument villagers have to keep the pachyderms at bay.