BANGALORE: How much food an elephant needs a day?
The voracious appetite of the 5000-odd elephants in Karnataka is leading to a frustrating time for farmers, private land owners as well as forest officials, who have an arduous task of enhancing the green belt across the state.
Bannerghatta National Park (BNP), located 23 kms from the city centre, registers over 500 man-elephant conflict complaints during the monsoon and harvest season.
Harvest season is munching time for the parade of elephants that roam through the leafy forest area.
Despite the luscious bamboo plantations and 120 water bodies that BNP has, more than 200 elephants raid private fields that grow ragi, paddy, sugarcane, mangoes, jackfruit and coconuts.
Farmers and private land owners on the fringes of the 102 sq kms forest cover in BNP are worried about crop damages and consequent commercial losses.
"We find it difficult to drive the herds away as they do not want to miss out on a healthy diet. This year it is all the more difficult as the herds have many baby elephants. The protective, motherhood instincts of the herd do not yield to easy scare tactics,'' said T Jaganath, BNP Assistant Conservator of Forests.
Since June, BNP has registered 200 man-elephant conflict cases in its three ranges – BNP, Ragihalli, Harohalli – and has to pay a compensation of Rs three lakhs.
Last year, over 450 cases were registered and the department paid Rs 5.80 lakh as compensation.
Elephants often break coconut trees while trying to eat tender shoots and feed their calves, leading to crop damage. In many cases, Jaganth pointed out, crops get damaged as the herd walk through the fields.
"Recently a farmer came with a complaint that a herd of elephant trampled his paddy fields. But we found out that elephants had just crossed the fields and not raided it. It is very difficult to explain to farmers that size of the pachyderms was the root cause and not their chomping. Some farmers consider a visit from a parade of elephants as a status symbol but are worried about commercial losses,'' he added.
Sometimes these complaints do get frivolous.
There have been many cases where even a footmark of elephants on fields has managed to get a complaint registered for compensation.
"One such case was reported this year, when a farmer came complained that his crops were damaged. But during inspection it was found that it was a mere foot-mark of the pachyderm and cattle had grazed his fields,'' said Sathyanarayan, a BNP Range Forest Officer.
Today, after all, is the World Elephant's Day.
Let them have a grand vegetarian feast.
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