kolkata apeejay tea and wwfindia have joined hands to manage humanelephant conflict in assams tea gardens if the partnership does lead to a solution it will also bring relief to parts of south and north bengal where houses and crops are damaged when elephant herds stray into villages every year at least 300 people and 4050 elephants die in the country due to humananimal conflict this is primarily triggered by displacement of elephants from forests due to human encroachment last year sangrampur village near bengals basirhat was terrorized by 130 tuskers that went on a rampage sonitpur district of assam a hub of tea estates is similarly affected leading to huge crop loss in sonitpur there have been 206 human and 131 elephant fatalities between 1996 and 2009 more than half of these occurred in tea estates of the 245 people killed between 2001 and 2014 in sonitpur due to humanelephant conflict 128 persons were from tea estates apeejay tea which has four tea gardensdhulapadung ghoirallie borjuli and sessain the hot zone has suffered heavy losses from the conflict we have lost an enormous amount of crop because of the rampaging elephants our plantation workers are traumatised we decided to join hands with wwf and work together to protect the tea estates said apeejay tea md a k bhargava according to wwf officials elephants wander into tea estates because they resemble forest areas if an elephant keeps destroying crops the tolerance drops said dipankar ghosh director of species and landscaped programme wwfindia as part of the project some pilot measures have been taken including the use of biofences where bamboo with thorns are planted and grown around the estates to act as a natural barrier against elephants and installation of alarm systems on fences to alert farmers when the fence is displaced or tampered with