Maharashtra: A blast of the trumpet (India)
Saurabh Katkurwar, The Free Press Journal
September 18, 2022
See link
https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/maharashtra-a-blast-of-the-trumpet
for photo.
Lakshman Madavi lost the paddy crop in the meagre one acre he has in
Dadapur Village, which lies in a remote part of Gadchiroli. The reason is
neither heavy rains nor disease.
It is a herd of elephants. Its movement damaged the standing crop in
Madavi’s and a few others’ farms. The damage, even the elephants’ presence,
have become a concern for the villagers. Yet no one harbours any animosity
towards the animals. The credit for this goes to well-coordinated efforts
by different stakeholders interested in conservation.
People realised that the elephants were coming close when they heard
trumpets amid heavy rain, Madavi said. “Fortunately, they did not come too
close to the village. But they damaged our crop as they appeared to be
trying to find a route to their new destination. I have been promised by
forest staff that I will be compensated in time,” he said.
The Forest Department has roped in people who specialise in reducing
human-animal conflicts and have adopted technological solutions to rule out
any untoward incident that may put conservation efforts in jeopardy. It has
also decided to speed up the compensation process — to be completed within
24 hours of reporting.
A herd of around 23 elephants entered Gadchiroli’s forests from
Chhattisgarh in mid-August. Since then, they have been on the move, often
coming close to villages and damaging farms in the process. The same herd
had come last year as well and stayed for four-five months before returning
to Chhattisgarh.
Now they have come again, forest officials and conservationists are curious
if the herd is trying to make Gadchiroli a permanent habitat. While this
comes as good news from the conservation perspective, it can create
problems since Gadchiroli does not have records of resident wild elephants
for the past two-three centuries, although it was once thought to be an
important elephant corridor.
One person, who was reportedly under the influence of alcohol, was killed
by these elephants last year. This year, however, no such incident has been
reported. Only one house in Waghbumi village was damaged when the herd had
just entered Gadchiroli. Forest staff are now monitoring their movement
round the clock.
Dhananjay Waybhase, deputy conservator of forest (Wadsa Division), said
three teams with different responsibilities have been formed. “Our forest
staff keeps a record of elephant movement using their sources in villages.
Another team called ‘hulla’ remains stationed in the village throughout the
night and stops elephants from entering. The third team provides technical
support such as the use of drones to track the herd and helps the ‘hulla’
team drive it away.”
Thermal cameras on drones let the hulla team know if the elephants have
turned back to the jungle or are trying to enter the village from a
different direction.
The hulla team has people from West Bengal-based Stripes And Green Earth
(SAGE) Foundation, who specialise in mitigating human-elephant conflict. It
gives real-time lessons to villagers on how to deal with the animals. This
involves the use of loud sound and a special type of flambeau (flaming
torch).
Pintu Mahata, an elephant biologist who leads the team, said: “We have
developed a technique that deters elephants from entering villages, that
too without making them angry. We have so far stopped this herd from
entering villages five times.”
Unlike West Bengal, the conflict in Gadchiroli is manageable as people have
shown great restraint and elephants too prefer to stay away from human
settlements most of the time, Mahata said.
Elephants generally survive on leaves of green bamboo, green grass,
chironji (Cuddapah almond/Buchanania lanzan), which is abundant in
Gadchiroli’s forest. However, they enter human settlements to eat grains or
mahua flowers, and if they happen to be in the way. No elephant from this
herd has been reported to have damaged any house for food this year. The
Forest Department has advised people to store their grains and mahua flower
stocks in pucca houses.
Public awareness is at the centre of preventing conflict. Forest staff and
a team of the Pune-based RESQ Charitable Trust are holding programmes in
different villages. Neha Panchamia, founder and president of RESQ, said the
objective is to help people understand the animals’ behaviour and teach
them how to deal with their presence.
“Our observations suggest that retaliations from people are lower if they
are aware of why the [wild] animals are here. We tell villagers how to
remain safe and what to do when they encounter elephants. We also explain
to them the process of getting compensation for the damages.”
Bhimrao Vaidya, from Dadapur Village, also lost some of the paddy crop on
his three-acre farm. “I have contacted the local forest guard to initiate
the compensation procedure. Why would we have a problem if we are properly
compensated and protected from elephants?” he said.
The Forest Department said technical tools, capacity building and lessons
from the last year have helped them address the challenges smartly. The
developments suggest that Gadchiroli has become a favourable place for
elephants, said Sagnik Sengupta, who heads SAGE Foundation.
“People in Gadchiroli are not trying to harm elephants. The crop damages by
these elephants are negligible compared to what is happening in other parts
of India. The forests here are also dense and continuous. We hope elephants
will stay here.”
https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/maharashtra-a-blast-of-the-trumpet