Alasbarricadas - Foros

Elephants Raise Ruckus in East India

From Associated Press

[for related background stories, please see below]

GUWAHATI, India — Wild elephant herds have been killing people, flattening houses and even guzzling rice beer in India's remote northeast, prompting villagers to retaliate against the pachyderms with firecrackers and bonfires.

With an estimated 5,000 elephants, Assam state has the largest concentration of wild Asiatic elephants in India, said M.C. Malakar, Assam's chief wildlife warden.

The herds, faced with shrinking forest cover and human encroachment, venture into villages looking for food and attack those who try to stop them.

The elephants have stampeded across the region, stomping down houses and feasting on standing crops, Pradyut Bordoloi, Assam state's forest minister, said Saturday.

Rice beer is an attraction. Workers in tea plantations make rice beer at home and store it in drums.

"There are many instances of wild elephants guzzling the brew and returning for more," Bordoloi said.

Wild elephants have killed at least 22 people this year in the state, authorities say, adding that a rapidly shrinking habitat is the main reason for elephants killing more than 600 people in the last 15 years.

On Oct. 26, wild elephants guzzled rice beer in Marongi, a village 175 miles east of Assam's capital, Guwahati, and then went on a rampage, trampling three people to death, India media reported.

Wildlife authorities and villagers use firecrackers and bonfires to scare away the herds, Bordoloi said. Villagers also beat drums.

Satellite imagery showed that as many as 113,315 acres of forests were cleared by humans from 1996 to 2000.

Source: LA Times

------------End AP Article--------------

Poor Indians are cutting forests for firewood The reason? Slashed subsides have caused skyrocketing fuel prices. We all know who demands slashed subsidies.

Excerpt from A lonely battle for the forests of Assam:

Among the rare and endangered species of animals found in the rainforests of Assam are clouded leopards, sloth bears, leopards, tigers, elephants, Indian bison, sambars, slow loris, capped langurs, hoolock gibbons and flying squirrels. Among the birds are drongoes, pheasants, oriales, jacanas, wood ducks, eagles, owls, hornbills and minivests.

A survey conducted by Dutta's organisation suggests that out of 15 species of non-human primates found in India, seven inhabit this rainforest. These are Rhesus macaque, Assamese macaque, Slow loris, Capped langur, Pigtailed macaque, Stumptailed macaque and Hoolock gibbon. The last five species were declared endangered in the Red Data Book of the Zoological Survey of India in 1994