It’s time we made a little room for the elephants

Wild elephants trampled two farmers to death last Sunday, in the Mahadeshwara state forest area of the Bannerghatta National Park. While conservation efforts yield results and the elephant population appears to be rising, there is concern that some forest areas marked off as reserves might have reached their carrying capacity. What, then, is the best way to reduce the man-animal conflict in this situation? Assistant director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s India programme, Sanjay Gubbi, mulls over the issue in a discussion with DNA.

Do you think that we have seen a rise in man-animal conflict because the population of wild elephants has increased?
There is no peer-reviewed, scientific benchmark data to enable comparison, but in some areas such as Nagarahole, Bandipur, and Bannerghatta, it could well be that the optimum ecological carrying capacity has been reached.

So what could we do to ensure that the elephants don’t attack people?
There is need to maintain well the elephant-proof trenches and electric fences that are used to keep elephants from straying into villages. No amount of money spent on fresh measures is likely to yield anything, if the barricades that have already been put up do not work. These days, protected areas do not have any dearth of funds. There is need to use the money wisely to minimise man-animal conflict, rather than build new roads in the forest areas and provide water harvesting structures in elephant habitats.

Handling man-animal conflict is a specialised task. The forest department ought to have specially trained teams in conflict-prone
regions. The department should also go all out to educate villagers, and work in consultation with farmers so that the barricades are put up in the areas where these are needed most.

What do you think ordinary citizens, especially farmers and those residing in the periphery of forests, could do to reduce instances of man-animal conflict?
The least that people who reside in areas adjoining forest areas could do is refrain from filling in the elephant trenches, because they then leave themselves and the crops they cultivate more vulnerable to marauding elephants. Farmers should be educated about their environment, and encouraged to grow crops that are unpalatable to elephants.

What long-term solutions would you suggest?
Elephant habitats ought to be protected. We should not use these for constructing highways or dams, or for mining and other projects. Elephants need sufficient lands to forage in, and these should be protected from forest fires and grazing of livestock.

Are areas marked off as forests sufficient?
We should prevent the fragmentation of elephant habitats. Wherever possible, forests adjoining protected areas should also be included within the protected areas. Wherever people are willing to relocate, fair and well-implemented relocation projects should be taken up.