In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, a mobile application called HaatiApp has been launched to warn people about herds of wild elephants, the BBC reported on Sunday. Indian media reported that more than 1,700 people have died in attacks by these animals in the past four years.
The HaatiApp (“haathee” means elephant in Hindi) is designed to warn residents of approaching herds of wild elephants. It also includes a form for victims and their families to apply for compensation from local authorities in the event of injury or death as a result of an animal attack.
Conservationists say elephants in Assam are becoming increasingly aggressive as their habitat shrinks and traditional routes are encroached on by humans and their investments. According to official data, elephants have killed 1,701 people in India from 2020 to the first quarter of 2024, according to the Hindustan Times. The highest death tolls were recorded in the states of Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu. The app’s creator, Aaranyak, works on biodiversity in northeastern India. It also published a manual on how to build solar-powered fences that can help deter elephants. According to the non-governmental organization WWF, there are fewer than 50,000 Indian elephants left in the wild (Elephas maximus). It is estimated that half a million families in India suffer the destruction of their crops by these animals every year. Sometimes farmers kill them to protect their families and plantations. Indian elephants compared to African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are smaller and have dark gray or brown skin with pink patches on the snout, ears, and trunk. They are found in 13 countries in South and Southeast Asia and southern China, with about 80 percent of the population living in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The number of Asian elephants has declined by about half in the last three generations of elephants, WWF said. Elephants are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
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