Bangalore: The attempt to encroach upon Turahalli Reserve Forest may have a serious impact on the already fragmented natural habitat of elephants surrounding Bangalore.

Besides Bannerghatta National Park, straddling the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, there are other pockets where elephant herds live and periodically leave to migrate to other smaller reserves or towards the larger parks closer to Mysore.

While elephant migration for foraging is not new, now they are forced to visit cultivated fields and the outskirts of villages because their natural feeding grounds have disappeared.

Wild elephants can occasionally stray into the city as Kengeri at times and some herds travel between Bannerghatta and Hosur forests. These forests are increasingly getting fragmented. Some elephant herds from the vicinity of Bangalore had even strayed into the adjacent Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, where a small sanctuary for them has been created. Elephants had not been seen there earlier for many years.

"The elephants are not affected as long as the population and urbanisation are under control. However, over the past decade, there has been exponential growth of population and urbanisation. The traditional elephant areas have shrunk as a result," said A.K. Varma, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, Karnataka.

According to the A.T. Ramaswamy Joint Select Committee of the Legislature on Encroachment of Government Lands, 750 acres of forest land had been encroached in Bannerghatta National Park.

Mr. Varma said the Forest Department has adopted a two-pronged approach to get back forest land. He said the Revenue and Forest officials are working together to get back the land. "Around 40 acres of land has been recovered so far," he said.

Raman Sukumar of Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre, the Centre for Ecological Sciences, and the Indian Institute of Science has been studying elephants and their unique relationship with human beings for more than 20 years. He said that over the years, the original habitats of elephants around Bangalore had shrunk. "This is the reason they stray into human habitations," he said.

Leo F. Saldanha of Environment Support Group said: "The earlier elephant corridor route was thickly vegetated. Now, land developers have started forming layouts on the outskirts of the city, which has caused urbanisation right in the forest reserve itself," he said.

When the elephants, during their migratory journey that starts between November and December, find that the corridor through which they passed earlier is blocked, they break down the barriers and destroy whatever comes in their way.

Officials of the Forest Department said the elephant had already become extinct in Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. If effective steps were not taken to curb quarrying and encroachment, regenerate the forest land and restore the elephant corridor, the elephants might face extinction even in Karnataka.

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