Elephantine problem: Western Ghats states urged to innovate as wildlife conflicts surge amid habitat fragmentation (Bengaluru)
Elephantine problem: Western Ghats states urged to innovate as wildlife
conflicts surge amid habitat fragmentation (Bengaluru)
Bosky Khanna, The New Indian Express
February 25, 2024
Wildlife conflict is not new, but governments of three prime states of
Western Ghats -- Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu -- need to come up with
innovative solutions to mitigate it.
The Karnataka government’s decision to give an ex-gratia to Ajeesh Joseph
Panachiyil, a tribal from Wayanad, who was killed in an elephant attack,
has again brought to fore the issue of man-animal conflict and its
management.
Animals know no political boundaries, but their movement, especially
radio-collared ones, and ensuing problems have raised issues of
coordination and management among the three states that share borders. The
human-animal conflict is more pronounced in the Western Ghats, which has
the highest wildlife population and is home to prime national parks and
wildlife sanctuaries.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), in its
recently released tiger estimation report -- Status of Tigers, co-predators
and prey in India- 2022 - Final Report, said the Western Ghats,
encompassing 140,000 sqkm, that traverses through Kerala, Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat is one of the most-populated
biodiversity hotspots in the world and faces numerous threats pertaining to
human-induced activities.
Experts say the ministry’s observations are bang on. Despite the use of
technology, orders from high courts of the three states and scientific
reports, man-animal conflicts are only on the rise, year on year. The
governments have seen little success in voluntary tribal resettlement,
controlling change of land use and management of national parks and
sanctuaries. Adding to the problem is the rise in commercial activities in
the name of tourism, even eco-tourism.
The three states have prime tiger reserves in the country -- Bandipur,
Nagarhole and BRT in Karnataka, Satymanagala and Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu
and Wayanad in Kerala. As per the 2022 tiger census report, the Western
Ghats region hosts 1,087 tigers.
In August 2023, the Karnataka government released a report -- Asian
Elephant (Elephas maximus) Population, Size and Structure Estimates for
Karnataka -- which stated that the state houses 6,395 elephants.
“The fragmentation of habitat occurs when landscape continuity is broken
and forests shrink into smaller patches, resulting in honeycombing. This is
a major cause of human-wildlife conflicts as it directly affects ecological
and behavioural factors such as foraging movements, dispersal, migrations
and colonisation abilities of species. Fragmentation also exposes more of
the forests to increased contact with human settlements, roads, railway
lines and such infrastructure. This increased exposure, as is happening in
the landscape across three states from Nagarahole – Wayanad - Bandipur –
Mudumalai and BRT, is driving increased human-wildlife conflict. Voluntary
resettlement and strategic land acquisitions to reduce fragmentation have
to be taken up in the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) mode urgently,” said
Praveen Bhargav, Trustee, Wildlife First, and former member, National Board
for Wildlife.
Explaining why conflict has increased over the years, former Principal
Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) BK Singh said conflict is not new. It
is not just limited to elephants but is also from tigers, leopards, gaurs,
sloth bears and all animals.
Dr Nishant Srinivasaiah, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Raman Sukumar’s Lab, IISc,
says there is no one specific answer.
“It depends on the local ecological and anthropogenic conditions. If we
look at the change of seasons from post-monsoon to now getting into summer,
increased movement of animals looking for forage and water is expected and
this movement results in chance encounters and increased run-ins with
people and infrastructure. Built-up areas are increasing, which means it is
much more difficult for animals to navigate through increasing human
spaces. Another is the adaptive responses of wildlife that are living
alongside people mostly in secondary habitats, manifested in increased
range areas sometimes to regions in which historically they did not occur.”
Recently, Union Forest Minister Bhupender Yadav, during his visit to
Bandipur and Wayanad, said man-animal conflict along the borders of these
two reserves is of grave concern. He also said chief wildlife wardens,
under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, Section 11, can issue orders to
either capture or shoot an animal to combat conflict.
Later, the Kerala government announced roping in of sharpshooter Nawab
Shafath Ali Khan to shoot dead the makhana that killed Ajeesh. It was the
same makhana that was captured by the Karnataka forest department officials
in Belur, Hassan district, in November 2023 and released into the core
forest of Bandipur Tiger Reserve the same day, after being radio collared.
Karnataka Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre said Karnataka takes pride in
housing the highest number of elephants, but it also faces the problem of
conflict. Habitats are shrinking and around 50% of the forest is infested
with lantana, which is another major cause for conflict.
Hearing multiple cases of conflict, courts in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil
Nadu, over the years, have ordered regular tripartite meetings among the
states. The National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court too had made a
similar point. Following these observations, meetings at the level of PCCF
and Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) started to happen. It was announced
that meetings at PCCF level should happen annually and that of DCFs once in
six months.
On February 23, after Yadav’s visit and Ajeesh’s death, additional chief
secretaries of the three states, along with PCCFs, DGPs and DCFs, held a
virtual meeting.
A Karnataka official admitted that the meetings have little impact as what
is decided is not implemented because of other pressing issues listed by
respective state governments.
“Merely having meetings is a waste of time and resources. The law (Wildlife
Act) being the same across three states, the most important issue is to
develop a scientific management plan to manage this landscape which
supports the biggest meta-population of Asiatic elephants and tigers. This
plan must be peer-reviewed by independent ecologists and conservationists
who have extensive knowledge of these habitats and are aware of how they
recovered and the historical failures of certain interventions,” Bhargav
said.
PCCF, Wildlife, Subhash Malkhade said, “At tripartite meetings, discussion
is on border protection and conflict. But the major focus now is on forest
fire management. We share information about fires with neighbouring states
and vice versa. Information on poachers, animals and smugglers, captured on
camera traps and call records, is also shared. The movement of elephants is
also shared as Karnataka is radio-collaring them,” he added.
Karnataka is the only state in the Western Ghats that is radio-collaring
elephants and tigers before relocating them into the wild. The movement of
these animals is tracked on the Hejje app. Karnataka has been
radio-collaring elephants for the last six years and 10 have been collared
in the last one year, including bulls, female heads of herds and makhanas.
Earlier, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) technology was used,
now it is satellite based. But there is a catch as the movement is captured
only once in two hours.
“In case of Belur Makhana, the Kerala forest department was informed of its
movement, but they did little to track it. When they asked us for its new
coordinates after Ajeesh’s death, it was traced to the core area of
Nagarhole Tiger Reserve,” said a Karnataka forest department official.
While Kerala appreciated Karnataka for the use of technology, it pointed
out that more needs to be done. D Jayaprasad, PCCF, Wildlife, Kerala, said,
“Karnataka shares information, but it should share equipment too. The
satellite data is not continuous. The antennas need to be shared.”
Another reason for conflict, a Karnataka forest department official pointed
out, was the forest patch in one state meeting with the non-forest patch
(revenue pockets and urban areas) in another state. Citing the example of
Satymanagala and BRT, the official said that every year, elephants from
Satymanagala enter non-forest patches near BRT, creating havoc. This has
left locals in Karnataka agitated as they are losing crops and lives. To
such incidents, other states too should radio-collar elephants, he
suggested.
Srinivasaiah, working on elephants and radio collaring, said collars are
simple tools that help understand the behaviour of animals as far as their
movement is concerned at a fine scale. It throws light on aspects like
habitat use, identifying feeding and movement areas, home ranges and
territories.
“It is not a solution to address conflict, but a mere tool to help
understand the animals. It is increasingly being used to also inform people
of animals living close to their areas. Conflict can be mitigated through
proper coordination and cooperation,” he added.