Shortage of Food and Water! Man-Elephant Conflict in the Boraligaon Village of Kaliabor Sub-Division of Nagaon District, Assam (India)

Niha Dutta^1,

¹Department of Geography, Darrang College, Tezpur (Assam), India

Cite this paper:
Niha Dutta. Shortage of Food and Water! Man-Elephant Conflict in the Boraligaon Village of Kaliabor Sub-Division of Nagaon District, Assam (India). Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences. 2021; 9(1):86-91. doi: 10.12691/aees-9-1-14

Abstract

Man-elephant conflict is not a new topic in today’s world as it becomes a universal problem due to its frequent occurrence in many parts of the world. The damages and destructions caused by wild elephants is real and significant danger to human life as well as their properties. Most of the elephants often venture into villages during night time in the search of food, water and living space. The herd of wild elephants always trigger panic among the local people of Boraligaon village of Nagaon district (Assam) during harvesting season which have remained unaddressed for the people of Assam due to lack of proper communication. Thus, this paper is an attempt to assess the nature of man elephant conflict with its impact in the study area of Boraligaon village. Keeping this in mind, it has been tried to highlight the key issues using primary information as well as secondary collected from various sources. The continuing man-elephant conflict during winter season has taken a serious turn in the study region damaging most of the paddy fields in the time of harvesting which is an outcome of habitat loss and food and water shortage of wild elephants. This conflict may be a never-ending process, but its risk can be lowered down by adopting some scientific and systematic initiatives as well as their proper monitoring in timely.

Keywords:
conflict habitat loss harvesting paddy field

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