through respondent No.3, the Divisional Forest Officer, Goalpara Division. It is contended by the respondent No.3 that the statement made in the letter that 200 elephants have died at the hands of illegal encroachers and miscreants is incorrect and it is contended that majority of the elephants deaths occurred due to natural causes or veterinary diseases. According to the respondents, on the contrary, 311 people have lost their lives due to wild animal attacks. It is also contended by the respondents that there is no permanent wild elephant reserve under the Goalpara Division and in reality most of the elephants migrate from the neighbouring State of Meghalaya in search of food and shelter just for few days and in some isolated incidents, such migratory elephants come in confrontation with human population. The respondents have declared before this Court that rapid action team vigilant for 24 hours is constituted for awareness campaigns, watch towers etc. and has relied upon the data in the form Annexure-C and D to the affidavit, which enlist the measures taken to reduce human-elephant conflict in the Goalpara division. It is also averred that in order to avoid any death of elephants by electrocution at the hands of miscreants, the forest department in cooperation with the civil and police administration maintains round the clock vigil to contain such incidents and satisfactory results have been achieved. It is also contended that with the help of civil and police administration, eviction drives are being undertaken. However, it is expressed that the encroachment is on large
