JOIN USOn the verge of disappearing
Two tamed elephants from South Karnataka region are recently brought to Dandeli Anashi Tiger Reserve (DATR) in Uttara Kannada district to start North Karnataka region’s first elephant safari.
This does not mean that the forests in and around DATR do not have elephants.
In fact, though considered minority, isolated, and sometimes, bleak-futured wild
elephants of North Karnataka region, with their source population in and around DATR (Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary earlier), have the ‘credit’ of expanding the northern-most boundary of wild elephant habitation in South India.
Interestingly enough, elephants were historically not the permanent residents of Uttara Kannada district but they used to come from South Karnataka, where elephant population has been more.
Today, the elephants’ pathway between northern and southern regions of the State remains broken and only a few elephants rarely get shifted between these regions, that too with the intervention of the Forest Department.
In 1883, Colonel W Peyton, the then conservator of forests of the southern division of the Bombay Presidency, had observed that small herds of elephants used to come from Mysore region to Kanara, finding their way from Sorab, through the Chandragutti Hills, into parts of Sirsi and even as far north as Bhagavati.
A few elephants were considered to be isolated and settled in Kanara, after their pathway linking north and south region was broken in the 20th century.
The second half of the 20th century reportedly witnessed no natural movement of
elephant herds between south and north Karnataka due to the broken ‘corridor’ in Sorab area, while development of highways, deforestation for different reasons and construction of dam across Sharavati River were said to have closed their migratory route.
Elephants are known for their memory power regarding the path of their movement.
Maybe for this reason, elephants in Uttara Kannada district still move in south-eastern direction of DATR and surrounding areas, towards the areas near Banavasi in Sirsi taluk, bordering Sorab taluk in Shimoga district, which is a part of their lost pathway linking south and north.
However, elephants in Uttara Kannada district did not restrict themselves.
In 1990s, they moved towards farther areas in Belgaum district in the north, and in the new millenium, they have entered Kolhapur and Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra, which were not considered as traditional elephant habitations.
From there, they also visit the forests in Goa! Naturally, this territory expansion resulted in human-elephant conflicts.
Mysore-elephants-turned-Kanara-elephants, which form the source population of the elephants of the entire North Karnataka region, are also considered sober due to lesser number of human-elephant conflicts, compared to some places in South Karnataka.
Reasons are many. The number of wild elephants is comparatively very less, their population is thinly distributed, and people are also said to be more tolerant.
However, human-elephant conflict in the region cannot be considered as negligible. In DATR limits, three persons were killed by elephants from 2008 to 2014, and crops worth over Rs 4.24 lakh were damaged, as per the information given by DATR director Shrinivasalu.
This year, a tusker which was responsible for the death of two persons had to be caught inside DATR and shifted to Sakrebail elephant camp in Shimoga district.
Human-elephant conflicts were reported from Belgaum and Haveri forest divisions.
The number of wild elephants in Uttara Kannada district is said to be not more than 50, while this number may be less than 100 in the entire North Karnataka region, which has the movement of wild elephants in parts of Belgaum, Haveri and Dharwad districts bordering Uttara Kannada.
This is why, they are considered as minority in comparison with several thousands of strong elephants of South Karnataka. Moreover, they have already lost their connection with their relatives in the south.
Very often, a serious concern is expressed regarding the future of wild elephants in small numbers in North Karnataka region.
It is said that they maybe extinct from the region one day, as inbreeding may make them weak and vulnerable to diseases in the long run.
“Elephants want to mate with the members of other groups to avoid inbreeding. And, elephants in and around Dandeli are so desperate in this regard that a wild tusker mated with a tamed female elephant in 2006, and a baby elephant was also born,” explains Manoj Kumar, an official of the Indian Forest Department.
Experts have suggested restoring the broken elephant corridor between south and north regions of the State or bringing male elephants to the north to facilitate their mating with different groups, as ways to avoid inbreeding and save the wild elephants of the North Karnataka region from possible extinction.