The best way to mitigate the man-elephant conflict can be found only through research and awareness among the locals besides involving all stakeholders in the consultation process, feel experts and wildlife activists.
“There is no particular solution that would fit in all locations and situations. The reasons behind the conflict have to be studied separately for each and every location,” says Ananda Kumar, a scientist with Nature Conservation Foundation.
He bagged the prestigious Whitley Award, or the Green Oscar, for 2015 for devising an early warning system in Valparai plateau, home to second largest elephant population in the country. “A scientific investigation into the sources of conflict occurrence in places should ascertain how many elephants use the landscape in question, how they move through and nature of the conflict.”
As many as 41 elephant-related deaths occurred at Valparai between 1994-2015, of which 36 were cases of surprise encounter with neither the elephant nor the humans being aware of the presence of the other.
Of the 69 deaths between 2009 and 2015 in Coimbatore, as many as 53 cases were found to be accidental encounters.
The main reason for accidental encounters in Valparai and Coimbatore, he says, is that either the toilets were constructed away from their homes or the houses lacked toilets, resulting in people going near forests to answer nature’s call. Hence, they came across elephants when they leave their house at odd hours, resulting in unfortunate consequences. “This is more of a social problem that can be tackled if the local administration constructed toilets attached to their houses.”
Protect buffer zones
Forest areas in Coimbatore are not on a linear stretch but follow an irregular pattern and are constantly interrupted. While the traditional farmers understood elephants and knew how to co-exist with them, the new entrants to these areas are encroaching upon the fringe areas of forests, says G. Sivasubramanian, a biologist for the WWF India.
This problem is particularly acute in areas such as Walayar-Madukkarai-Sadivayal stretch. “What is remaining of the buffer should be preserved,” he says.
Change in land use
“Change in the land use pattern adjoining the forest areas is the leading cause of the conflict,” says K. Kalidasan, president, OSAI, an NGO involved in wildlife conservation.
While 23 people were killed from 1994 to 2004 in Coimbatore Forest Division which has six ranges, the figure alarmingly rose to 100 in the period between 2004 and 2015.
Coimbatore, Hosur and Gudalur near the Nilgiris are among the hotspots in man-elephant conflict in Western districts in the State. Most common reason is the blocking of the traditional migratory path of elephants. This results in elephants crossing into human habitations and ravaging crops, activists say.
