Recording preference of elephants for natural water bodies, the study by Wildlife Conservation Society India Program cautions that practices like creating waterholes without research on impacts may be counterproductive for conservation.
The research evaluated elephant distribution during dry season in Bandipur and Nagarahole National Parks and adjoining forests in the Western Ghats of Karnataka between December 2013 to March 2014.
Correlating ecological factors including distance to rivers, stagnant water and vegetation to elephant distribution, the study drew inferences on elephant-habitat relationship, according to a press statement.
Despite presence of over 650 waterholes across the study area spanning 1850 sq km, the pachyderm distribution pattern was most strongly influenced by natural rivers and streams. With increasing distance to rivers, the probability of habitat use by elephants decreased.
Titled ‘Determinants of dry season habitat use by Asian elephants in the Western Ghats of India’, the study was published in the International Journal of Zoology. The paper was authored by N Lakshminarayanan, along with Dr Krithi K Karanth, Dr Varun R Goswami, S Vaidyanathan and Dr K Ullas Karanth, with affiliations to WCS (New York and India), National Centre for Biological Sciences, Duke University, and Foundation of Ecological Research, Advocacy and Learning.
“Given the scale and multitude of management interventions that take place in our wildlife reserves every year, scientific assessments of their usefulness have to be carried out prior to interventions so that only needed habitat management practices are implemented,” authors of the study say.
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