Odisha Has Turned a Graveyard For Pachyderms

Barely two days have passed since the world celebrated the International Forest Day. While talking of forests, it is hard to ignore the animals who live and thrive there.

In Odisha, wildlife and forests have one signature species -- elephants. The state’s forests have the most majestic pachyderms in the country.

But are these pachyderms on the run? This question has disturbed many minds, including people who have devoted their lives to conservation of elephants in Odisha’s forests.

“Yes, they are on the run”, laments Biswajit Mohanty, an acclaimed wildlife conservationist.

“With Odisha recording an all-time yearly high record of 94 elephant deaths in 2024-25 (till March 18, 2025) the state has acquired the dubious record of being the elephant graveyard of India,” Mohanty told this writer.

The current financial year has also recorded the highest number (31) of elephants killed by electrocution, all of which were avoidable deaths. Compared with Karnataka, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the elephant death rate in Odisha is much higher, indicating a breakdown of protection.

Odisha was once known for its magnificent elephants and was raided by many kings, including the Mughals, for its prized war elephants. There are references to the massive elephants of Odisha in the Mahabharata war too, it is said.

“Due a host of unnatural reasons, Odisha is now India’s largest graveyard for elephants. Electrocution, train hits and poaching are among the leading causes for these unnatural deaths,” Mohanty said.

An analysis of mortality records for the past 15 years reveals shocking data. A total of 1,191 elephant deaths from all causes have been reported, which includes 316 poaching and electrocution deaths. Trains and heavy vehicles killed 52 elephants. Deaths of 257 elephants due to “unknown causes”, as claimed by the forest department, are misleading, say conservationists.

“Most deaths are actually due to poaching. Since decomposed carcasses were detected after several weeks, it made post-mortem impossible to determine cause”, Mohanty added.

The forest department officials have often been accused of an “uncanny knack of hiding behind excuses which more often than not smacks of cover up exercises to conceal the real causes.”  

‘False Claim’ of Anthrax

The Wildlife Society of Odisha (WSO), headed by Mohanty, has dared the state forest department and noted that 17 concealment cases (exposed by Special Task Force-Crime Branch and the media) have been reported since October 2012, of which the highest were reported in 2021-22 (three) and 2022-23 (nine).

As many as 12 elephant bodies were exhumed -- seven of them in Athagarh Forest Division, three in Sambalpur Forest Division, one each in Boudh Forest Division and Satkosia Wildlife Division.

Athagarh continues to be a hotspot for elephant poaching and the local staff regularly cover up such deaths by burying or burning the carcasses without recording the offence, he alleged. 

“Anthrax (a potentially fatal bacterial disease), purported to be a main cause of these elephant deaths, can only be substantiated by carrying out proper post-mortem and investigation to find the true cause of the deaths”, said Mohanty, citing an RTI (right to information) response from the Animal Disease Research Institute (ADRI), Phulnakhara, in Odisha, in 2020.

The RTI response revealed that of the 20 samples received by ADRI, mostly from Similipal, Hadgarh and Kuldiha sanctuaries between August 2017 and December 2019, only two were found to be Anthrax positive, “which can be construed that 90% of the suspected Anthrax cases were false”.

Despite demands by WSO to reopen the 90% cases not proved to be Anthrax positive, the department has preferred to remain silent. Therefore, at least 18 cases out of the 503 cases shown as “natural, infighting, disease deaths” have been wrongly recorded, he said.

Unlimited Electrocution Deaths

The current year has been devastating for elephants due to the highest ever record of electrocution deaths of 31 so far (till March 18, 2025). The highest electrocution deaths of eight elephants was recorded in Sambalpur, followed by four deaths in Khordha and four in Angul district.

As many as 15 elephants died due to electrified fences and 11 died due to live wire poaching, which reveals an “awful breakdown of patrolling by forest department and Tata Power officers,” it is alleged.

“Shockingly, five elephants died this year due to sagging overhead power lines or unsafe poles. which reveals gross negligence by Tata Power to prevent such serious threats”, Mohanty told NewsClick.

“All these 31 electrocution deaths could have been prevented if Discoms had invested money in safety and the forest department had conducted adequate joint patrols with their officers to check electrified fences and live wire poaching wires. There is zero accountability for such deaths since not a single official of Tata Power has been convicted”, alleged an environmental activist in Odisha.

Attempts to solicit a response from the nodal power discoms did not yield any results till the time of writing.  

15 Years of ‘Death Dance’

In 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had set up an enquiry committee to investigate electrocution deaths of elephants and recommend steps for prevention. 

"Most of the recommendations are yet to be implemented since the past 15 years, while elephants continued to be slaughtered by live wires", he said.

"Despite allocation of more than Rs. 700 crores by the state government for strengthening of power lines, patrolling and insulation of naked overhead 11kv wires in forest areas for barricading of transformers, electrocution death rates have not been checked,” said Mohanty.

From April 1, 2010 to March 18, 2025 (15 years), Odisha has lost 213 elephants to electrocution, averaging nearly 14 elephant deaths in a year. 

In Dhenkanal, five elephants were electrocuted in a horrific case in September 2017 near Meramundali (the biggest case in India) when a sagging 11kv wire touched a passing herd.  

The writer is a freelancer based in Odisha.