A biodiversity conservation group from the Northeast has launched a mobile app — HaatiApp — to reduce deaths/injuries due to rising human-elephant conflict in Assam and neighbouring states.
Developed by the Guwahati-based group, Aaranyak, the app will act as an “early warning system” about the presence of wild elephants in the proximity of human settlements to “help avoid negative interface” minimising death and destruction.
The Assam government had said in the Assembly last year that on average the human-elephant conflict (HEC) leaves on average 70 humans and 80 elephants dead every year.
The Aaranyak said in a statement on Sunday that the mobile app and a solar fence manual were launched by Assam minister Nandita Gorlosa in Guwahati on Saturday night.
She said both these “tools would be of immense utility for multi-stakeholders in mitigation of human-elephant conflict for the sake of coexistence”.
Assam has the second highest population of elephants in the country, over 5,700, after Karnataka, at 6,049.
Shrinking habitat due to deforestation and development has, however, seen a rise in HEC in the state which saw the death of over
According to the state government, 1,330 elephants died between 2001 and 2022, of which only 509 died of natural causes. Others were mostly poisoned, electrocuted and poached.
Similarly, the number of human fatalities in the last five years is also a cause of growing concern. There were 75 human deaths in the 2019-20 fiscal, 91 in 2020-21, 91 in 2021-22, 63 in 2022-23 and 74 in 2023-24. There is also a loss of properties and crops in the conflict.
The areas where HEC is acute fall under Chirang, Baksa in Lower Assam, Golagjhat in Upper Assam and Sonitpur in North Assam. The government has till now paid over ₹9 crore in compensation to the HEC affected.
Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, who heads the Elephant Research and Conservation Division (ERCD) of Aaranyak, stressed on the express need to address the escalating human-elephant conflict in the region, said the HaatiApp is set to serve as an early warning system, alerting villagers about presence of wild elephants nearby.
