293 people killed in tiger attacks, 2,657 in elephant attacks in last four years: Govt

New Delhi, Dec 7 (PTI) As many as 293 people lost their lives in tiger attacks between 2018-2022 and 2,657 died in elephant attacks between 2018-19 and 2022-23, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Union Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Kumar Choubey shared the data in a written reply in the Upper House.

He said 31 people died in tiger attacks in 2018, 49 in 2019, 51 in 2020, 59 in 2021 and 103 in 2022.

Meanwhile, the number of human deaths in elephant attacks stood at 457 in 2018-19, 586 in 2019-20, 464 in 2020-21 and 545 in 2021-22.

"Incidences of wild animal attacks have been reported from various parts of the country due to several reasons which inter alia include degradation of the habitat, depletion of the natural prey base, increase in population of wild animals due to sustained protection efforts and changing crop patterns, etc.," Choubey said.

Spelling out the measures taken to reduce human-animal conflicts, he said species-specific guidelines were released by the Environment Ministry in March 2023 for mitigation of conflict between humans and elephants, gaurs, leopards, snakes, crocodiles, rhesus macaques, wild pigs, bears, blue bulls and blackbucks.

Guidelines were also issued for cross-cutting issues such as occupational health and safety in the context of human-wildlife conflict mitigation, crowd management in human-wildlife conflict-related situations, and addressing health emergencies and potential health risks arising out of human-wildlife conflict situations.

Choubey said the Centre provides financial assistance to state and union territory governments under the centrally sponsored schemes -- Development of Wildlife Habitats, Project Tiger and Project Elephant -- for management of wildlife and its habitat in the country.

The activities supported under the schemes include construction of physical barriers such as barbed wire fences, solar-powered electric fences, bio-fencing using cactus and boundary walls, etc. to prevent the entry of wild animals into crop fields. PTI