India launches app to lower deaths caused by wild elephants

Charmaine Jacob, CNBC
In this photo taken on July 17, 2019, a herd of wild elephants cross the National Highway-37 in the Kaziranga National Park in the India's northeast state of Assam. (Biju Boro / AFP - Getty Images file)
A herd of wild elephants crossing a highway in the Indian state of Assam in 2019.

The state of Assam, in northeastern India, has launched a mobile app that warns people of incoming herds of wild elephants in an effort to reduce violent encounters between humans and the land giants.

Clashes between humans and elephants are not uncommon in India, and have continued to rise in recent years. Elephants are turning more aggressive as their habitats and natural corridors get downsized to make way for urban development.

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Developed by Aaranyak, an Assam-based conservation society, the app, named HaatiApp, tracks the movements of wild elephant herds and warns users if they get close to a collision.

Human-elephant conflicts in the state caused more than 200 elephant deaths and 400 human deaths from 2017 to 2022, the organization reported.

“Fueled by a combination of a population boom and poverty, man has expanded his frontiers, while animals have found their jungles shrinking.”

The app also lets residents report elephant sightings, injuries and deaths, as well as crop and property damages, and includes a form that victims can use to seek compensation from government entities in Aaranyak.

As the human population increases the natural habitat of the elephants get destroyed and they are forced to move in farming areas where causing damage to crops. (Diptendu Dutta / AFP - Getty Images file)
Villagers look on as a wild elephant walks through a tea garden near Siliguri, India, in 2017.

“The application will act as an early warning system about presence of wild elephants in the proximity of human settlements so as to help villagers avoid negative interface with wild elephants,” Aaranyak said in a Facebook post following the app’s launch this month.

Along with the launch of the app, Aaranyak also released a handbook with information on using solar-powered fences to keep elephants away from humans and property.

Assam is also known for its vast agriculture and numerous wildlife sanctuaries, where animals close to extinction such as the Asian elephant and Indian one-horned rhinoceros seek refuge.

The state has the second-largest elephant population — 5,700 — in India, after the southwestern state of Karnataka, home to more than 6,000 of them.

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