Abode in tatters, jumbos strike back

Confused and angry due to the severe fragmentation of the elephant corridor in Western Ghats, tuskers may enter smaller towns like Sakleshpur, Hassan and Mudigere that border the hilly region. The wild elephants are also likely to enter towns in the interior plains like Chennapatna and Ramanagara.

Following the rampage in Mysore on June 8, elephant-man encounters have been witnessed in three places in Chennapatna (Ramanagara district), Balegadde (Uttara Kannada district) and Yesluru (Hassan district). Luckily, the encounters did not acquire the gory dimensions that it did in the city of palaces.

The elephant incursions into human habitat have been prominent in the past two years. Hanume Gowda, a resident of Alur near Hassan, now wishes he was not a dedicated member of the Village Forest Committee. These days, almost every expedition of Gowda into the forest does not end without the sighting of elephants.

“I have been chased by elephants more than half a dozen times. I have not experienced such aggressiveness among the elephants in 30 years of my life in jungle. All these years I have seen them peacefully grazing and moving on when it was time for them to vacate. But now every year around this time, our tensions run high and the villagers have to be prepared to encounter them head on,” says Gowda.

Linganna Gowda, a resident of Balegadde, about 16 km from Sakleshpur, started to cultivate bananas 20 years ago. He had a fear that elephant herds would invariably trample on his plantation. His apprehensions became a reality just two years ago. Tuskers have destroyed his crops four times in the past two years. “My neighbour Siddaganganna also has his own share of problems from elephants in the past two years. Though he has been growing cardamom and pepper for the past 20 years, his losses have been extensive only now,” he says.

But why has the elephant incursions increased now? “They find their surroundings changing every year, their migration path shave been blocked by plantations, artificial forests and even human hutments. If they do not find the expected landscape and food stock at the end of their migratory path or on the various spots they stop over for refills, they become confused and wander away. This is what happened at Mysore and it can happen anywhere,” reasons Ambadi Madhav, divisional forest officer, Hassan.

In recent times, estate owners in Yeslur, Rayarakopplu, Alur and Doddabetta have erected solar electric fences, creating problems in the elephant corridor. Forest resorts owned in Sakleshpura and Kodagu are also becoming problem areas.

Translocating elephants is seen as a solution, but conservationists believe the animals are part of the region’s biodiversity.  “The elephants cannot be translocated anywhere else in the region; they are part of the biodiversity of the region. Each animal is a resident of this region. How can anybody even think about translocating them?” asks Niren Jain of the Kudremukh Wildlife Foundation.

The forest department officials of Hassan and Kodagu districts are as confused as the elephants.

“There are so many animals in large herds, we can only take temporary measures like driving them away by making some noise, but the herds will only cross to the other side of the forests either in Kodagu or Hassan and later return to the same place. Elephants are not the problem, but the structures that are coming on the government lands on elephant corridor are,” says a forest official.