Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 11 (PTI) Linear infrastructuredevelopments were conflicting with the objectives of wildlifeconservation in many national parks and wildlife sanctuariesin India, an expert said here today.
As many as 72 of the documented 88 elephant corridorshave national highways or other major roads passing throughthem and seven have railway lines, V B Mathur, Director of Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India, said.
More than 200 elephants had been killed in the countrysince 1987 by trains passing through forests, he said whilespeaking at a two-day workshop on elephant conservation insouth Indian states jointly organised by the Union Ministry ofEnvironment and Forest and Kerala Forest Department.
Of the 50 Protected Areas (PAs), declared as TigerReserves in the country, major roads pass through 26 of them,he said.
"In many of India's National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuariesand Tiger Reserves, linear infrastructure developments in theform of roads, railway lines, power lines and canals areconflicting with the objectives of wildlife conservation,"Mathur said.
As many as 30-50 cases of poaching of tuskers for ivory,40-70 cases of electrocution and 20-30 cases of poisoning ofelephants are reported across the country every year, he said.
Detailing the reasons leading to human-elephantconflicts, he said loss, degradation and fragmentation ofjumbo habitat, blockage of corridors, illegal harvesting,enclaves within forests, labour colonies on corridors withintea/coffee estates, trespass, movement of pilgrims and so onwould contribute to the menace.
Stressing the need to initiate research on 'reproductivecontrol' of elephant population, the official said emphasis ofelephant conservation programmes in future should be toimprove the quality of life of the animal rather than onincreasing their numbers.
"Smart and green infrastructure promotes both smartgrowth and smart conservation," he added.
M S Negi, additional Director General of Forests,Ministry of Environment and Forests, said the increasingpopulation of animals in forests might be one of the reasonsfor the frequent human-animal conflicts.
Demarcating elephant corridors by the state governmentsis one of the effective ways to contain human-animal conflictsin forest-fringe areas. So that, the developmental activitiesin these corridors could be redesigned in such a manner thatthese conflicts can be minimised or reduced, he said.
Quoting figures, he said at least 100 elephants and 400human beings are dying every year in the country due to thehuman-animal conflict.
Inaugurating the workshop, Kerala Forest Minister K Rajusaid the state, which has four identified jumbo corridors andreserves, is doing the elephant population estimation inregular intervals.
Stating that the elephants, be wild or captive, werefacing multi-dimensional issues across the country, he saidhuman-animal conflicts was one of the most serious concernsamong them to be addressed especially in southern states.
"Wildlife-human interface is a serious obstacle inwildlife conservation," he said.
Increasing population, development initiatives andclimate change were leading to the direct competition betweenhumans and wildlife for shrinking resources.
To address the human-elephant interface, Kerala had beenfollowing traditional measures like trenches, solar-poweredfencing, jumbo-proof walls, bio-fencing and so on, theminister said.
The state also started using 'early warning SMS alert'system with active involvement of local people to tackle theissue, he said.
Detailing various steps taken for the protection andrehabilitation of captive elephants, he said, the stategovernment has initiated steps to set up a world class captiveelephant management centre near here, the work of which isalready in progress.
Forest officials from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, AndhraPadesh and Karnataka besides Kerala are taking part in theworkshop, which would conclude tomorrow. PTI LGKRC.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.