‘Elephant conservation authority not needed, Wildlife Act is good enough’

Wildlife board says regulations as part of elephant corridor may not be acceptable to public

CHENNAI: Paving the way for controversy, the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) decided not to constitute National Elephant Conservation Authority (NECA), a long-pending proposal, to conserve the elephant corridors that are increasingly getting fragmented and degraded due to encroachments and other anthropogenic pressures.

The decision was taken at the 74th meeting of the standing committee of NBWL held on August 29 under the chairmanship of Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav. The meeting minutes, a copy of which is available with TNIE, categorically says, “...there is no need for the constitution of National Elephant Conservation Authority and the ministry shall inform the Supreme Court accordingly.”

In February this year, the Supreme Court had passed orders directing the Union environment ministry to respond to the recommendation made in the ‘Gajah’ report to constitute NECA. Internal discussions were held in the ministry on the requirement of a statutory body for elephants on the lines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). It was deliberated that without establishing the NECA, the directions can be issued under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 to have effects on elephant reserves and elephant corridors similar to those issued by the NTCA.  

HS Singh, member, NBWL, said the declaration of elephant corridors and regulation of activities in those corridors may not be acceptable to the public at large. Another member R Sukumar argued there was a tendency to call every place where elephants move as corridors.

“Recently, a document has been released titled ‘Elephant Corridors of India’, which is a mix of corridors, habitats and landscapes. One area referred to as corridor in Jharkhand is 120 km long and 5 km wide. This means 600 sq.km which is more than even most of the projected areas in the country. Another corridor which is about 46 km long and just 30 m wide. This means elephants have to walk in a single line. This is a complete anomaly. Elephants are now expanding their range and moving in human dominated agricultural landscapes coming in contact with electric wires and falling into wells. The data show that elephants are more likely to die outside the forest areas. This expansive definition of corridors would open floodgates for litigations,” Sukumar said.

He also opined that these are 10 relatively large landscapes in which habitats are already largely interconnected through corridors. These landscapes have a sufficiently viable population of elephants.
When contacted, conservationist Prerna Singh Bindra, who is the petitioner in the Supreme Court case and also a former member of NBWL, termed the decision unfortunate. She told TNIE, “Just like tigers, elephants also need focused protection.”

Coimbatore-based conservationist Mac Mohan said, “The NBWL, off late, was acting against the conservation and reduced itself to a clearance body. This decision is another classic example. Several elephant corridors fall outside the tiger reserves and protected areas. Those corridors need to be protected. Constituting NECA is critical.”    

Why corridors be protected?
Elephants are a keystone species. Their nomadic behaviour - the daily and seasonal migrations they make through their home ranges - is immensely important to the environment. Elephants are known as landscape architects, assists seed dispersal, its dung provides nutrition to plants and overall has an umbrella effect

Key facts

• As per ‘Right of Passage’ study document, 101 elephant corridors were identified as currently in use in India, and seven corridors that were previously identified were found to have been impaired in the last decade
• Of the corridors currently in use, 28 are in southern India, 25 in Central India, 23 in north-eastern India, 14 in northern West Bengal and 11 in north-western India
• An estimated 69.3% of these corridors are being regularly used by elephants, either round the year or in a particular season, and 24.7% are being used occasionally. Some 57.5% of the corridors are of high priority ecologically, and 41.5% are of medium priority, indicating that most of the corridors are important for elephant movement and to maintain a healthy population
• 32.14% of the corridors in southern India are of one kilometre or less, pointing to what the overall findings indicate: that the fragmentation of elephant habitats is less severe in these regions (and most severe in northern West Bengal followed by north-western and central India)