JOIN USAnatomy of a conflict
The heart-rendering image of a mother elephant guarding carcasses of two calves in Vatepura, Hassan district, caught the attention of the country a few days ago. The unfortunate calves had died due to electrocution as the farmer connected live wires to the fence to prevent elephants from entering his fields. Another calf died of similar reasons three days later. The issue of human-elephant conflict has com to the fore yet again. It ought to take centre-stage. This is the season when crops are ripe, harvested, stored and elephants see it as the best opportunity to find high-nutrition food outside their forested domain. Atypical of the general viewpoint that elephants come out of forests during summer due to lack of forage and water availability, elephant crop raids are high post-monsoon and end before the onset of summer. There are stray incidents during summer. Whatever the season, the issue needs to be ironed out to reduce human deaths and crop losses.
While finding solutions is key to the whole conflict, dissecting the problem is perhaps the most important of the priorities as it can possibly avoid altercations between farmers and elephants.
Splintering the Ghats
The geography of Hassan and Kodagu districts, where the human-elephant conflict has reached alarming rates, changed at unprecedented rates during 1960-80. The immediate victims of this changed landscape were its non-human inhabitants. Several wildlife species may have gone locally extinct and some like the elephants, a hardier species, have held on. But now they face a bleak or no future.
The construction of Harangi, Hemavathi and Chiklihole reservoirs, the flumes that carry water for cultivation and other related disturbances in the form of large-scale human settlements due to these construction activities have all led to one serious problem; loss and fragmentation of elephant habitats. These development activities ensured that the northern forests of Kattepura, Yadavanad-Aanekaad were disconnected from the southern forests of Dubare, Mavukal, Devamachi, Anechowkoor which further connected them to Nagarahole National Park. As a result, northern elephant populations are now disjointed from their southern habitats.
The connection to Pushpagiri, Talakaveri sanctuaries has long been broken due to widespread agriculture. The forests on the western slopes of the Ghats have been sliced due to linear intrusions such as highways, power lines, pipelines, railway lines and recently by mini-hydel projects. In this area, the elephants get to the end of their habitats even if they stretch their trunks.
These small numbers of elephants now isolated amidst human habitations and crop fields are the cause of conflict in the region. Unfortunately, people in this area are bearing the brunt of the mistakes made by planners during the 60s and 70s.
Mitigation measures
So are government agencies serious about solving the problem? Of course, they are. It is difficult to bear the wrath of farmers and families which have lost lives to elephant attacks. Recently, when I suggested to Hanumanthappa, park warden of Bandipur National Park about new conservation initiatives that could be implemented in his jurisdiction, his affirmative answer was “if we can handle this conflict issue I will dedicate myself to any conservation issue”. So conflict reduction is on top of the list.
There has been a spurt in government investment on installing more physical barriers to control elephants entering crops or human habitations. It’s not difficult to invest. However the crux is in maintaining these assets. Past experiences clearly show that the problem reduces only if there is efficient upkeep.
Similarly farmers invest on electric fencing for crop protection. But a few of them connect the fence with live wires directly drawn from 220 volt lines and sometimes even high-voltage distribution lines. These are death knells to elephants killing them instantly when the animals come in contact with electric fences.
Co-operation of local farmers to monitor these mitigation measures is extremely important. An experiment of shared farm fencing initiated by M D Madhusudhan of Nature Conservation Foundation has seen excellent results on the boundaries of Bandipur.
Degradation of habitat quality
A late afternoon drive on the fringes of our protected areas will give you a perspective of the livestock that graze inside these forests. Thousands of livestock would be returning after daylong forage inside the forests. This is a widespread conservation problem in most of our elephant habitats. Livestock grazing deprives elephants of their palatable forage forcing the pachyderms to raid crops. Perhaps people do not even realise that the livestock they herd into the jungles every dawn are indirectly responsible for their crop loss. But once strict enforcement is carried out, herders vent their anger by lighting forests on fire further lowering the quality of forage for elephants.
Alternatives for farmers
Preliminary results of a study the Wildlife Conservation Society (India programme) conducted show that five crop types suffered 86% of the conflict around Nagarahole National Park. There are no prizes for guessing the top five: finger millet (raagi), maize, cotton, paddy and sugarcane. Can farmers think of alternative high economic return crops? Perhaps crops such as turmeric, ginger, chillies that are unpalatable for elephants are better suited to farm in these areas.
Finally it’s the economic returns that matter. Improved post-harvest storage of crops making them inaccessible to elephants can reduce conflict to a degree.
The cultural and religious bond people held with wildlife and tolerated their losses is fast eroding. Can we complain when losses are so high? It’s not easy to see efforts of several months being trampled within few minutes. Similarly elephants next to a home built with fragile mud walls are not comforting either.
Eventually, the government will decide to remove these elephants, and the elephant ‘menace’ in Hassan district may come to an end. The elephants that once roamed these forests will be locally extinct. Does it matter? In Karnataka, local extinction of elephants is not a new phenomenon. Sharavathi valley, Shettihalli, Sagara, Soraba and its adjoining areas and Uttara Kannada (though a very small population of about 20 survive here) have all lost elephants. They now survive as a strong population only in the southern Western Ghats of Karnataka. However, if serious efforts are not made the story of Hassan will be repeated in other areas in the coming years.
All of us need roads, railway lines and other development projects. But the story line needs to change.
It’s a matter of realigning these projects to bypass elephant habitats. This is not going to cost heavily when compared to the ecological, aesthetic and economic benefits elephants bring to our society. Elephant’s habitats are at the mercy of a few decision makers who will decide where next will excavators and other large earth-moving machinery will rip the nation’s heritage animals’ domain.