THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Wild and captive. The elephant conservation challenge for Kerala is two-pronged. Captive elephants are worshipped as the embodiment of Lord Ganesha, but the torture of elephants is part and parcel of the money-spinning sector. At the same time, people who worship such jumbos kill wild tuskers mercilessly in what could be termed as ‘retaliatory killing’ on the forest fringes.
According to the Heritage Animal Task Force, as many as 245 wild elephants were killed on the forests bordering Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the past one year (from October 4, 2017, to October 3, 2018). Of these, 48 were tuskers, 120 female elephants and 77 were calves. Further, 49 of them died of electrocution and 45 died of poisoning.
According to a senior forest officer, retaliatory killing of elephants is among the major challenges being faced by the Forest Department.In recent years, as many as 25 wild elephants were killed on the forest fringes of Wayanad, one of the worst human-elephant conflict corridors in the state. Given such incidents, human intervention is the major driving force behind the escalating violence.
For instance, change in land use and crop on forest fringes is one of the main reasons for wild elephants being attracted to farmlands.
When enough fodder is available for jumbos in areas close to the forest, naturally, they would foray into the fields as animals have a tendency to conserve their energy. “We have to adopt a farming system which does not attract jumbos to farmlands close to forests, rather than constructing fences spending crores of rupees,” the officer said.
“Another factor in mitigating the rising man-animal conflict is the relocation of villages inside forests to revenue land elsewhere. Keeping a Kumki squad will also help the state identify the habitual crop raiders and isolate them from the herd.”
Each crop-raiding jumbo herd will have a leader and isolating it will help ease out the tension to some extent. Along with that, adopting fencing methods suitable for each terrain will address the issues, said foresters. At the same time, a healthy wildlife has to be maintained to keep the elephant population inside the forest thriving.
‘Enforce wildlife law’
P S Easa, wildlife expert and former director of the Kerala Forest Research Institute, said the focus should be on enforcing wildlife law, ensuring participation of people in the conflict areas and addressing the real issues of each terrain to reduce the conflict.Veterinarian and elephant expert Jacob Cheeran said the elephant is an intelligent animal that responds to situations in a fitting manner.
“For instance, the elephant can feel the flow of water under the riverbed even if it is dried up in summer and it will dig a hole to get water. Similarly, it can feel the vibrations of quarries from far off places and the sound often forces it to flee the area.“So, every method devised to mitigate the conflict should also take into account the intelligent behaviour of elephants,” Jacob Cheeran said.