BENGALURU: Eight bull elephants, reportedly roaming around the four forest divisions of Bengaluru rural and urban, Ramanagara and Tumakuru, have been increasingly knocking on the doors of human settlements, resulting in man-animal conflicts.
In the last 4-5 years, they have moved from their natural corridor to non-traditional paths and raided crops at regular intervals. With the state forest department paying compensation and ex-gratia payment to affected families year after year, there is now a proposal to capture and relocate the elephants.
This all-male herd from the Bannerghatta area has been roaming across the divisions for the last few years as per records of the forest department and studies by IISc researchers. During daytime, they stay in small forest areas while the evenings are meant for raids.
Incidents of crop raids have gone up resulting in Bengaluru Rural division paying a compensation of `30-35 lakh per year to affected farmers, says Mahesh Kumar, DCF. He adds, “We have been tracking them regularly and driving them away into forest areas. My field staff are always on their toes monitoring and tracking them.”
This herd has reportedly strayed from the main herds and formed its own alliance. During dry season, they raid horticultural crops like mangoes, bananas, arecanut, etc which are plenty around these divisions. With complaints pouring in, this herd has been identified and tracked and a proposal for their capture has now been mooted.
Mahesh Kumar says, “For many a reason, they have come out of their herds. Unfortunately, this herd is now looking for different areas in the course of their explorations. In fact, they are crossing three national highways and one railway track in their non-traditional paths. This is a dangerous precedent as not only their life is under threat but of even humans in their path.”
Manjunath, nodal officer, DCF Ramanagara, who has mooted the proposal for the jumbos’ capture, has recently submitted a field report to the Chief Wildlife Warden. He said, “This is not an isolated problem. Many divisions are facing this issue. In my division this year, we have paid a compensation of `70 lakh to farmers. We had incidents of two deaths also.”
However, fortunately, there have been no incidents of the jumbos being caught in the heavy traffic on the highways when they move from Bannerghatta to Tumakuru and back. Manjunath adds, “It will take some time as we have to formulate a proposal for their capture depending on the field report.”Monitoring their behaviour
There is also a proposal to radio-collar these persistent raiders so as to understand their behaviour. Prof R Sukumar, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, says, “The idea is to GPS-collar at least some of them and monitor their movements before releasing them in a more intact forest area where they are likely to settle down.”
Sukumar adds, “We are aware that many adult bull elephants tend to return to the area from where they are captured. However, there are indications that under some circumstances, such as young bulls that are dispersing from their families, the chances of them settling down in another area are reasonably high. We can only hope they will settle. Unless we do such operations multiple times and monitor the animals, we will never understand the circumstances under which these elephants are likely to settle down or return to their area of capture. There are no easy solutions.”