CHENNAI: The Brahmagiri-Nilgiri-Eastern Ghats, and nine other similar habitats in the country, should be declared as Elephant Landscapes and must follow a three-tier conservation mode, according to a report of the Elephant Task Force under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The report ‘Gajah: Securing the Future for Elephants in India’, which was released on Tuesday, states that the Brahmagiri-Nilgiri-Eastern Ghats, stretching over 12,000 sq km across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala with a splinter group in Andhra, should be taken up on a priority basis along with four other landscapes, and rededicated to the nation.
The project areas within the landscapes need the best level of protection for the viability of elephant populations, the report said. For this, relocation of some private holdings is needed.
Raising concern over Nilambur-Silent Valley-Coimbatore elephant population, it said firewood need from Gudalur is a grave threat to this connectivity, and sought the extension of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.
It also said that Project Elephant should be converted into a statutory body like National Elephant Conservation Authority (NECA) and should be governed by a governing council that includes representatives of the government as well as non-government wildlife experts, scientists and other conservation scholars.
The report, while giving out the outlines of the NECA and its composition, stressed on the need for bringing 32 Elephant Reserves under Ecologically Sensitive Areas under the Environment Protection Act. The Task Force also felt that residents in the reserve area should be partners and allies for conservation and not be treated as adversaries.
The Elephant corridors do not have legal protection under India’s Wildlife (Protection) Act or the Environment (Protection) Act and lack of land use policies in elephant habitats has resulted in fragmentation of habitat or escalation of elephant-human conflict.
The fragmentation of elephant habitat, it said, is due to corridors falling in private land and human used (road and rail) areas.
The total grant to protect the corridors under the 11th Five Year Plan in Project Elephant is only about Rs 15 crore, which should be increased to at least 600 crore in the 12th FYP, the report said.