Chhattisgarh's Korba administration ensures successful May 7 LS polls by tracking wild elephants

Korba (Chhattisgarh) [India], May 5 : Chhattisgarh's Korba administration is on a mission they hadn't quite anticipated, tracking the movement of wild elephants for successful May 7 Lok Sabha elections as the region is suffering from increased man-elephant conflict.
District Collector of Korba, Ajeet Vasant said that adequate arrangements were made to track wild elephants and inform them about their movements to mitigate man-elephant conflict during elections.
"If the elections are held even after 6 pm, there is a slight possibility of man-elephant conflict. Instructions have been given to make adequate arrangements for lighting at these centres. If such news comes from any area that there is a gathering of elephants there, then an inspection is conducted in that area, and people are told to remain alert, and this process will be done in the future as well," he said.
The DC of the Korba district further asserted that when the forest department gets to know that a herd of elephants roaming in the area, they alert people and ask them to not venture out.
Katghora Divisional Forest Officer, Kumar Nishant, said that the four ranges of Katghora division are elephant-affected ranges where the number of elephants has been increasing in the last 10 years and, as of today, have approximately 50 elephants.
"In the last Legislative Assembly elections, it was harvesting time and elephants were attracted to the crop. During that time, there were cases of human-animal conflict. Thankfully, there are no crops in the fields right now and due to this, elephants are mostly inside the forest," Kumar said.
He also pointed out that the department has also installed AI apps on villager's phones that alert them whenever there is any movement of elephants.
"We are continuously tracking the elephants and giving the location to the villagers. Along with it, there are 85 villages where a tower has been built, which makes a sound every time we put the movement of the elephants in the app. We are also using an artificial intelligence app in which there is an elephant tracking app. Apps are installed on the Android phones of villagers. If any villager sees a direct or indirect sign of elephants, then they put an entry in the app. We verify it and if it is found true, then we issue an alert in the app that sends a message to every villager about the location of the elephant," Kumar further said.
He also mentioned that around 65 polling booths are in areas that are elephant-affected and are very vulnerable and sensitive.
"So, our tracking team goes to every village and tells the villagers that on the day of elections they must vote as early as possible and try to vote before sunset.
According to forest officials, elephants mainly travel during the night, which makes the task of tracking their movement difficult. When an elephant is found approaching a village at night, forest officials use thermal drones to track its movements and alert villagers.
Chhattisgarh's Korba known as the gateway of elephants has been suffering from increased man-elephant conflict - between 2019 and 2023, at least 245 people died in elephant attacks in Chhattisgarh, which is 15 per cent of such casualties in India.
These encounters between humans and wildlife lead to negative results, such as loss of property, livelihoods, and even life which have a profound effect on the voters of Korba, while others are likely to vote on development, inflation, and other issues, they are focussed on the continuing conflict between humans and elephants as one of the main issues that they will keep in mind before going to vote on May 7 Lok Sabha polls.
Ram Bindwar, a villager from Lalpur Gaon, said that the elephant's problem remains there throughout the year and there is no relief from the administration.
"The situation in our village has become such that there are elephants throughout the year. There is no month when elephants don't come to the village. During harvesting, they destroy our crops. Now there is no crop, so they have started destroying houses. There is no relief from the administration," he said.
Another villager named Ram Lal Yadav said that the elephants come to villages during the night hours when they used to sleep.
"There are a lot of problems due to elephants. At night, they come to the village and during the day, they stay in the jungle. Villagers sleep at night and have no idea when they are coming. In Sant Ram's house, elephants demolished the wall of his house recently. We take precautions by lighting a fire to scare them," he said.
He also asserted that the human-animal conflict in the region will be one of the issues that we will keep in mind before casting our votes.
Human-elephant conflict is caused by habitat loss and fragmentation. It can lead to crop raiding, injuries and deaths to humans, and elephants being killed by humans.
Radhe Lal, another villager, urged the government to take some steps to solve the problem in the area.
"Some provisions for elephants should be made. We expect the government to take some action on this problem. Either the administration or the government should do something about it. What can we do if elephants destroy our houses and crops? If we could've done something about it, we would've done it. But it's not in our hands," Radhe Lal said.