Conflict mitigation needs wise heads

Confrontations between man and animal are rising in various parts of Karnataka. Wild elephants have started surfacing in urban centres including Bangalore. Mitigating the problem has arguably taken centre stage in conservation policy. Karnataka government has prepared a comprehensive project costing Rs 109 crore to contain man-animal conflict in the backdrop of the increasing menace. According to media reports the concerned authorities are planning to spend the amount on digging trenches and erecting new solar fences and to repair the existing ones. Field researches call for caution while this money is utilised on the above measures. Trenches and solar fencing are tried out options and not found to be adequate solutions for the problem.

Once distributed over a wide geographical region in Asia, the Asian elephant Elephas maximus has declined over much of its range and has an estimated world population of around 40,000 animals.  More than 50 per cent of these are confined largely to the remaining patches of forests in India. In these last refuges, elephants face increasing pressures due to India’s alarming human population growth. Since the 1980s, elephant populations in the fringe areas of these refuges have started to disperse, colonising habitats in which they did not occur for centuries.

To address the problem of human-elephant conflict effectively, one must understand the problems associated with dispersal and colonisation of elephants and know reasons for the elephants deserting their original home. Is it a consequence of habitat loss, degradation and disturbance or an increase in elephant populations beyond the carrying capacity of the habitat?

Welcome move

Most often animals dare into human habitations due to habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. So the prime importance is to be given to prevent this. Stopping forest encroachment and evacuation of settlements in the prime forest areas need to be addressed on a war footing. The recent cabinet decision to compensate farmers who are willing to leave forest interiors is a welcome decision in this regard.

National highways, traffic through protected areas and growing interest in ecotourism need to be strictly monitored and controlled on the line of the night traffic ban through Bandipur and Rajiv Gandhi National Parks. Widening national parks by adding new areas to them like the one done recently by adding the Kodihalli range, spanning about 157 sq km in Ramanagara territorial forest to the Bannergatta National park can go a long way in restoring the migration corridors of elephants.

Cultivating fodder crops both in the buffer zone and the core pockets of protected areas is another important step to be tested. Animals often come to the human settlements in search of protein rich diets. Ecological theory predicts that animals would tend to feed in a manner that maximises their nutrient intake in the minimum possible time.

A study on crop raiding by elephants showed that cultivated grasses such as paddy and finger millet provide more proteins, calcium and sodium than the wild grasses consumed during corresponding season. The proximate reason for elephants to prefer cultivated crops is their palatability. If the same can be provided within the forest, it will prevent their ingress into villages. When there is rich grass and vegetations available inside the forest, the herbivores will increase and it will provide a good prey base for predacious animals thus bringing down instances of cattle lifting by large carnivores of the wild.

Another new experiment tried to reduce clashes between humans and elephants by the khadi and village industry of Wayanad district of Kerala is a fence of beehives in the forest periphery. The technique tested earlier in Africa, takes advantage of the elephants’ fear of being stung by bees. Adult elephants can’t be stung through their hides but bees are attracted to the moisture around their eyes which is a weak spot for stings. Bees even get into and sting the inside of their sensitive trunks. It is experimentally proved that even bee buzz scares off elephants.

Floriculture and associated apiculture (Honey bee rearing) can go a long way in preventing elephants to venture into human habitations. First of all flowers are not raid friendly crops. Thus it gives an income generating opportunity for farmers in the periphery of forests and also a good fortification measure in man animal conflict resolution. Many flowering plants and vegetable crops depend on honey bees for pollination. Thus financial assistance from government to the marginal farmers of these areas for the above ventures can  improve their livelihoods and aid in conserving elephants.