BENGALURU: The sounds of each animal and bird are well known, but how they communicate and what each action and sound means is not known.
A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru and staffers from the Karnataka forest department have undertaken a study to ascertain and understand how elephants communicate with each other.
An acoustic study has been undertaken to know what each sign and sound means and how far the communication travels.
It is a five-year-long study and is the first of its kind in India. It is being done in the Mysore Elephant Reserve, as an effort to mitigate conflict.
The Mysore elephant reserve landscape was notified in 2002 and is spread across 8,055 sqkms, from Bhadra Wildlife Division in Malnad to Bandipur and Nagarhole Tiger Reserves in the south along the Western Ghats, and from BRT Tiger Reserve (Chamarajnagar) to Bannerghatta National Park along the Eastern Ghats.
The study aims to understand the reasons for conflict and find solutions on how it can be mitigated. In the last 30 years landscapes and land use patterns have changed.
Even though elephants have a home range of 400- 500 sqkms, they have to travel long distances for forage. During which, they come into conflict.
“Using this study, we want to understand their movements, take measures accordingly and even try to control it. They have a definite path but are diverted. What are the reasons for the diversion and how it can be avoided will also be ascertained,” said Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, wildlife, Kumar Pushkar.
A similar acoustic study is being done in South Africa, but that will not help in studying Asiatic Elephants as the situations are different, said the forest department officials.
The study will also help understand how elephants comprehend the signs and actions of humans, how they react and why so during elephant drive operations and in crop raids. The infrasonic waves of communications they use will be captured and decoded, the officials said.
R Sukumar, an elephant expert and part of the research team said, the high and low-frequency sounds and the basic fundamental research on sounds have been done.
In this study what each call means will be analysed in depth. The highlight will be how male elephants communicate with each other in agricultural/ human areas and in the wild. Playback of calls will also be done to understand the reaction and behaviour, he added.