WB to use drones equipped with night vision cameras to tackle human-elephant conflict | Calcutta

With human-elephant conflict on the rise and more than 400 people killed by elephants in West Bengal in the last five years, the state government plans to deploy drones equipped with night vision cameras to tackle the menace.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, at an administrative meeting, has directed officials to use drones to track the movements of elephants.

“Use drones to monitor elephant movements. Elephants often stray from the forests and have even been known to change their migration routes. The Forest Department should have drones in every district where there are large forest areas,” Banerjee said during the meeting at the state secretariat.

Data placed in the Lok Sabha in July this year shows that at least 436 people were killed by elephants between 2019-20 and 2023-24. The death toll has risen in the past four years.

While at least 116 people died in 2019-2020, the death toll fell to 47 the following year. However, it started to rise between 2021 and 2022, with at least 77 deaths recorded that year. At least 97 and 99 deaths were reported across the state in 2022-23 and 2023-24.

“We sometimes use drones to tackle elephant movements, but a project has been approved where, for the first time, heavy drones equipped with night vision cameras would be used to tackle the human-elephant conflict. It is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency,” a senior forest department official told HT.

During the same period (2019-20 to 2023-24), at least 41 elephants were killed across the state due to various reasons including train accidents, electrocution, poaching and poisoning.

“Most of the human-elephant conflict occurred after sunset and before sunrise. Therefore, drones equipped with night vision cameras are needed,” the official said.

While North Bengal has around 488 elephants, South Bengal has around 194 pachyderms. In 2023, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had identified at least 150 elephant corridors across India in a report. While there were eleven corridors in South Bengal, there were two inter-state corridors shared with Jharkhand. The report also stated that elephant use intensity had increased in most corridors in South Bengal.