By Devram Prasad Yadav, Saptari, Jan. 12: An elephant was electrocuted to death in Saptari's Kanchanrup Municipality on November 22, 2020. The elephant was electrocuted by 33,000 KV electricity after its body was dragged onto a power pole in Ward No. 5 of the municipality.

A tiger was killed in a private car accident at Jitpur Simara Sub-metropolis-1 in Bara district on January 2, 2021. The adult tiger was hit by a car (Ba 16 Cha 811), which was heading to Sarlahi from Hetauda and died on the spot on the highway.

A deer was killed in a motorcycle collision in Sarlahi district on January 5, 2021. The deer died on the spot when it was hit by a motorcycle (Province 1-02-042 P.4009), which was heading south from the north on the New Road-Barhathwa road section in Bagmati Municipality-3.

An elephant died on Saturday in an electric trap set by a local in the municipality. According to Saptari Police Spokesperson Bhubaneswar Sah, the male elephant from Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) died due to electric shock while entering the village.

Elephants, a rare species of wild animal, have been dying prematurely while entering human settlements from within the reserve. The reserve administration has been failing to protect wild animals. As a result, the people around the reserve are scared and even the animals are feeling insecure.

The KTWR, located in Sunsari, Saptari, and Udaipur districts, is spread over an area of ​​175 square kilometres. Due to insufficient area of ​​the reserve, various species of wildlife have become unsafe recently. Even though the number of wild animals in the reserve is increasing day by day, the rare wild animals have become insecure due to lack of adequate grazing space.

Conflicts between wild animals and human beings continue to cause human losses and even cause the deaths of animals. Due to the damage caused by wild animals, an uncomfortable situation has been created between the locals and the reserve administration, said police.

Altogether 17 animals died and 98 were rescued in the past two years.

According to the KTWR, 17 animals including elephants died in the last two years. In the fiscal year 2075/76, a total of 13 wild animals, including one male wild elephant, two male bulls, three male chitals (spotted deer), one male boar, small cockle, sarung, golden gohoro, big nirbiralo (Toddi cat), vulture and male cat died, according to the Reserve Office.

From June/July to October/November of the current fiscal year, four wild animals, including one elephant, boar, ratuwa (Muntiacus muntjak) and huchil each have died and 27 others have been rescued. Although the reserve office has the statistics of rescuing 71 wild animals in the fiscal year 2076/77, there is no data on the number of dead wild animals.

Of the 13 wild animals that died in the fiscal year 2075/076, five were killed in road accidents. Arna, boar, Sano Kokle, Sarung, and Sun Gohoro have died in road accidents while the cause of death of the remaining one elephant has not been confirmed yet. Of the four wild animals killed in the current fiscal year, two have died due to electric shock, one has died fighting another and one has died due to the premature birth of an elephant calf, according to the Reserve officials.

Chandra Shekhar Chaudhary, the newly appointed warden of the reserve, said that he has been planning to make the reserve organised and safe. He said that rare animals come out of the reserve and enter human settlements in lack of enough grassland and shelter.

Chaudhary said that alternatives would be sought as the fence was not effective in preventing human and animal damage. A long-term plan is needed to protect rare animals like Arna along with the people living around the Reserve surroundings.