Communities in Chhattisgarh & Uttar Pradesh are using tech, on-ground monitoring to reduce human-elephant conflicts
Communities in Chhattisgarh & Uttar Pradesh are using tech, on-ground
monitoring to reduce human-elephant conflicts
Purushottam Thakur, Vivek Mishra, Down to Earth
April 3, 2024
See link
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-biodiversity/communities-in-chhattisgarh-uttar-pradesh-are-using-tech-on-ground-monitoring-to-reduce-human-elephant-conflicts-95306
for photo.
In the heart of the dense forests of Chhattisgarh, an important initiative
is underway to safeguard elephants and the human settlements living on the
fringes. This unique endeavour involves members of the local community,
known as hathi mitras or friends of elephants, who work round the clock to
maintain a vigilant watch on the movement of the elephants and warn village
residents if the animal is in close proximity.
Jitendra Kunjam, a hathi mitra stationed at the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger
Reserve that spreads across Gariaband and Dhamtari districts, shares his
recent experiences. For the past two months, elephants have been residing
within the forest, feeding on roots, bamboos and lush green leaves. During
a recent expedition, Kunjam, along with fellow trackers, encountered
elephants from a safe distance as they rested in the afternoon shade.
“Elephants are not typically found in the reserve. So when a herd of 20-30
elephants migrated from Odisha to our forests in 2019-20, we were tasked
with monitoring their movements,” says Narendra Mandavi, who earlier used
to monitor forest fires.
“Due to the overpopulation of elephants in Odisha’s forests, we are
witnessing their displacement to Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Such
displacements often lead to conflicts, as people attack the elephants out
of fear, prompting aggressive behaviour from the animals. The hathi mitra
initiative that was started in 2021 has played a crucial role in preventing
such conflicts,” says Varun Kumar Jain, deputy director of the tiger
reserve. He adds that the reserve can accommodate around 200 elephants.
“We have learnt a lot about elephants,” says Dheluram Sahu, another hathi
mitra. “We know that before they begin to walk, elephants scratch their leg
on the ground, raise their trunk and move their ears. We also know that
elephants generally move forward. This is the reason we always station
ourselves behind the herd,” says Sahu. Elephants use their trucks to spray
dust in the air to warn us if we are too close, he adds.
“Elephant tracking is a demanding task. During the day, when elephants
typically rest, the mitras monitor them on foot, while at night, when they
move around for food, the mitras accompany the forest department’s
patrolling van,” says Devdutta Taram, ranger of the Arsi-Kanhar section of
the reserve.
Initially, hathi mitras alerted village residents of elephant threats
through munaadi, the traditional practice of hooting to raise an alarm. But
in early 2023, the Chhattisgarh forest department introduced the
“Chhattisgarh Elephant and Alert” mobile application in the state. Now
hathi mitras update the location of the herds on the application, which
identifies the villages within a radius of 20 km to the herds and sends
alerts on the mobile phones of the village residents through voice notes
and WhatsApp messages.
Since the application’s implementation, confrontations have decreased, with
no human deaths reported in the area, says Jain. The presence of elephants
in the region has also enriched the ecosystem. “They have made the forests
less vulnerable to fires and reduced illegal tree felling and
encroachment,” says Jain.
Beyond Borders
Over 1,000 km from the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve, another community-led
initiative is underway in the Katarniaghat forest sanctuary. Unlike
Udanti-Sitanadi, Katarniaghat in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh is a
part of the Terai Elephant Reserve and the Indo-Nepal Khata elephant
corridor.
As a result, the communities in and around the reserve have voluntarily
started tracking the movement of elephants, along with the help of wildlife
organisations. When an elephant herd nears a village, the volunteers,
called gaja mitras, camp atop temporary elevated watch towers, and the
village residents use firecrackers to wade them off.
In February this year, the gaja mitras, along with their counterparts in
Nepal, started a WhatsApp group, “Indo Nepal Human Animal Conflict Group”,
for sharing elephant movement across the border. “Elephants cause loss of
life and property in both the countries. The solution lies only with the
community living in the forest. Creating the WhatsApp group is a step taken
in this direction,” says Dabir Hasan, project officer, World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF), India, which helped set up the WhatsApp group that has gaja
mitras, forest officials and community members from Nepal.
The volunteers have been identified on the basis of a baseline survey
conducted by the Nature Environment and Wildlife Society in 2020, in which
the non-profit identified the five most vulnerable villages. “The villages
recorded 12 deaths and crop loss across 16 hectares in 2018-20. Next, 89
gaja mitras were trained in the villages,” says Abhishek, project manager
of the non-profit. He adds that after the Terai Elephant Reserve was formed
in 2022, the number of vulnerable villages have increased to 10. We are
training gaja mitras there, he adds. The volunteers are trained in
understanding elephant behaviour, and are given reflectors and torches for
patrolling the forest edge at night.
One of the reasons behind the initiative is the fact that the forest
officials in Terai, the most recent of the 33 elephant reserves in the
country, have till date not received any funds from the government. The
other is the increase in elephant population in the area in the past
decade. “In 2006, only one or two elephants used to come here through the
Khata corridor. Since 2010, the arrival of these elephants has increased
and now a significant number of them have migrated to the forests of
Katraniya itself,” says Irfan Ahmed, the former deputy ranger at the
Katarniaghat sanctuary.
The reason for this change, he says, is that while Nepal has stopped
growing sugarcane around the corridor, its farming has picked up in India
in the recent years. According to the “Elephant Corridors of India” report
released in 2023 by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change (MOEFCC), 56 elephants regularly use the corridor and another 66
elephants roam regularly in the wildlife sanctuary.
The success of the two initiatives highlights the potential to engage
communities in conservation efforts, which is critical as India is
witnessing an increase in human-elephant conflicts.
According to MOEFCC, the country recorded 97 human deaths due to elephant
attacks in 2022-23, up from 52 in 2018-19. In the five years, such
conflicts claimed over 389 human lives in the country.