India, Jan. 23 -- Stopping illegal mining & quarrying, notifying elephant corridors would be ideal solutionfor human-elephant conflict

Wildlife activists and experts have hailed the Odisha government's decision to deploy kumkis (domesticated, trained elephants) from Tamil Nadu to minimise the increasing human-elephant conflict in the state. At the same time they have also urged the government to improve elephant habitats so as to lessen the conflict.

"The deployment of kumkis is a welcome step. But it can't mitigate the increasing conflict in the state," said Biswajit Mohanty, former member of the National Board for Wildlife.

He added that unrestricted quarrying and mining in Odisha's elephant habitats were some of the major causes of ...