Forty per cent of elephant corridors of India have reported an increase in use by the long-ranging animals, reveals the latest study carried out by Project Elephant.
At the same time, despite efforts for the rejuvenation of habitats, 10% of the elephant corridors have become impaired over the years. The Elephant Corridors of India 2023 report mapped 150 elephant corridors in 15 elephant-ranging states, categorised under four broad geographic regions - northern, north-east, east-central and southern - having discrete regional metapopulation of jumbos.
As per the report, 15 out of 150 corridors - one in the north region, three in the east-central, nine in the northeast and two in the southern region have lost functionality over the years owing to various factors, including growing anthropogenic pressure.
The Gola corridor in Uttarakhand, Bichaburu-Anjadbera corridor in Jharkhand, Deuli-Suliapada corridor in Odisha, Pakke-Doimara corridor in Arunachal Pradesh, Kukurakata-Bagsar and Charduar-Singri Hill corridors in Assam, Ranggira-Narpah corridor in Meghalaya, Apalchand-Kalimpong and Apalchand-Gorumara corridors in West Bengal, Chamarajanagar-Talamali corridor in Karnataka and Anamalai-Punachi corridor in Tamil Nadu are among the 15 key corridors that went impaired.
Another 29 corridors – constituting 19% of the total - have recorded a decline in use by the gentle giants over the years. These corridors - primarily affected by encroachment, mining activities, development of linear infrastructure such as roads and railway tracks and other human interventions - require restoration efforts to get functional, the report suggests.
Habitat enrichment, accurate demarcation, measures to check human interventions, and legal protection under appropriate laws at the state level are some of the measures Project Elephant has recommended in its report to safeguard these corridors. The report, however, has revealed that there has been an increase in the movement of elephants in at least 59 corridors that constitute around 40% of the total corridors mapped.
Seven corridors in the north, 18 in the east-central, 21 in the northeast and 13 corridors in the south region recorded an increase in use by the elephants. The movement of jumbos in another 19% of corridors remained stable.
Apart from the 15 elephant range states where corridors have been identified, Vidarbha region in Maharashtra adjoining Chhattisgarh; southern Maharashtra adjoining Karnataka; Madhya Pradesh, where elephants presently occur in Bandhavgarh and Sanjay Tiger Reserves and; northern Andhra Pradesh, where elephants move in from Odisha - are some of the regions were elephants have recently expanded their ranges.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India (MoEFCC) with support from state forest departments and non-governmental institutions has been able to restore a few of the critical corridors too. These corridors include Kaniyanpura-Moyar corridor in Bandipur landscape of Karnataka, Chilla-Motichur corridor in Rajaji landscape of Uttarakhand, Thirunelli-Kudarakote corridor in the Wayanad landscape of Kerala, Segur elephant corridor in Mudumalai landscape of Tamil Nadu, Kuldiha-Hadgarh corridor in the Similipal landscape of Odisha, Edayarahalli-Doddasampige corridor in MM Hills and BR Hills landscape of Karnataka and Mudahalli-Talavadi corridor in BR Hills and Sathyamangalam landscape in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
“Given the strategic importance of maintaining habitat connectivity through a network of elephant corridors, it would be pertinent to start periodic monitoring of the elephant corridors in line with the periodic population estimation of elephants,” Project Elephant director Ramesh Kumar Pandey underlined in the report. Such focused monitoring could not only be helpful in the timely securing of the corridors but also aid in understanding elephant movement patterns, and predicting human-elephant conflict so as to devise proactive conflict mitigation strategies, he added.