In Frames / Treetop watch (State of Assam, India)
Ritu Raj Konwar, The Hindu
December 4, 2022
See link
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/in-frames-treetop-watch/article66222021.ece
for photos.
Assam has more than 5,700 elephants, the highest number after Karnataka in
India. A few of them get orphaned every year primarily due to human-animal
conflict and natural calamities.
Sadly, the human-elephant conflict is on the rise in Assam. Dwindling
habitats across the State have pushed elephants into an increasingly
hostile relationship with humans sharing the same land. The pachyderms
venture out close to human settlements and damage farms and property, and,
sometimes, even attack people.
The frequency of encounters with elephants is more for the people of
central Assam that has a peculiar landscape with small patches of forests
interspersed with paddy fields and other valuable crops. The pachyderms
visit the region for about four months every year, their numbers and
duration of stay is ever increasing.
To protect their crops, the farmers here have built tongi ghor or tree
houses high up in the branches near their agricultural fields. Equipped
with torches and a few firecrackers, they spend the night keeping watch
over their crops and to deter wandering wild elephant herds.
If the villagers don’t drive the elephants out, they would have to starve
as a raiding elephant herd can damage crops.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/in-frames-treetop-watch/article66222021.ece