Tough times for the gentle giants
JANARDHAN ROYE
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As their natural habitat of forests shrink or disappear, elephants are up against the only predator they cannot seem to outwit: man.
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Falling numbers: Destruction of habitat has put elephants on the endangered list. Photo: Reuters
SOME 180 million years ago, mammals appeared on earth and evolved by adapting to their surroundings. Those that could not, gradually faded out. In the last 100 years 65 mammal species have become extinct. One remarkable species that has managed to survive from the earliest times is the elephant.
Two million years ago, it roamed a large expanse of land as the spectacular woolly mammoth and giant mastodon. Then about 13,000 years ago many of these proboscideans disappeared — leaving behind their smaller cousins, the African and Asian elephants. Today they find themselves on the endangered list.
In 1970 there were 1.5 million wild elephants. By the 1990s this plummeted to 6,40,000. Today, as their natural habitat of forests shrink or disappear and a number of man-hosted factors militate against them, elephants are facing tough times.
Fortunately presently there is a concerted global effort on to protect and secure a better tomorrow for them spearheaded by dedicated organisations, individual conservationists and animal lovers. Government efforts such as Project Elephant have not yielded the desired results.
The India link
To almost everyone, India and elephants are inseparable. Besides their exalted place in Hinduism and Buddhism, elephants have been an inexorable part of India's history, tradition, myth and culture. They have been captured, tamed, domesticated and bred in captivity. They have been used in battle, hunting, religious and ceremonial occasions, and to manage other elephants.
Yet the animal is an endangered species. Its numbers have dropped to about 30,000. Clearly modern pressures are taking their toll: urbanisation, deforestation, brutal domestication and training methods, and the destruction of musth males, so vital for the continuity of the species. On every count, elephants are up against the only predator they can't outwit: man.
Today, man's brutal dominance of Planet Earth seems complete. Thick forests have been razed to create settlements and urban infrastructure. Swamps, water bodies, and forests areas have become dumping ground for wastes, including highly toxic substances. With the present unbridled pace of urbanisation, the already damaged environment can only get worse — a grave danger for both animal and man.
A single adult elephant in the wild needs about 8,000 acres to survive, says Richard Lair, an American adviser to Thailand's National Elephant Institute. The daily requirement for an adult elephant is 170-200 kg of vegetation, and 80-200 litres of water. With their habitat being systematically destroyed or diminished, elephants are struggling for space and their daily requirements of food, water and quiet.
Routine conflicts
The situation has become so acute that elephants are getting desperate. Their ire is directed at dwellings and farms that have sprung up in their time-honoured space, and the resultant man-animal conflict has become routine news in the media.
Recently, forest officials fired tranquilliser shots at a marauding tuskerto stop its two-month run. People in the tribal settlement near Thiruvananathapuram, heaved a sigh of relief but little was said of the provocation that led to the elephant's abnormal behaviour. Similar "elephant menace" stories are doing the rounds in other forests. Inevitably such man-animal encounters result in tragedy. Across India, there are some 300 human and 200 elephant casualties annually.
Elephants stray when their domain is disturbed or when their corridors are blocked. In addition to "urbanisation", tribal squatters routinely expand their settlement, farming activities, and even graze their livestock in elephant sanctuaries. Resenting such intrusions, elephants raid the community's hutments and devour the fruit, rice, and sugarcane that people raise. Soon these become irresistible and the elephants return to the crops, much to the chagrin of farmers.
Interestingly such food intake makes elephants a "carrier" of seeds, which are dispersed through their droppings. This in turn adds to or replaces valuable lost tree-cover. An elephant's habitat generally has an enhanced eco-system where water, soil and other conditions make for a better environment.
The farmer whose cash crop has been raided, however, doesn't take too kindly to the raiding elephant. His efforts to stop further elephant forays may include the use of firearms. Ivory hunters use sophisticated guns and other hi-tech methods. In such cases, panic-stricken herds run for their life, abandoning their age-old habitats and the herd breaks up. The breeding stock becomes meagre among the slow-breeding animal. Over time, close breeding becomes unavoidable, resulting in genetic deterioration of the species.
Shooting tuskers
Another reason for the falling elephant numbers is the shooting of virile adult males for their tusks. "That causes imbalance," says animal activist and former environment minister, Maneka Gandhi, "Presently there are less than 800 tuskers left ... and they are being killed all the time."
This situation can be seen in States like Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, where elephant sighting has become rare. The Forest Department fears that a similar fate awaits elephants in Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, the North East and elsewhere. This bleak scenario is the challenge facing conservationists.
One person leading the worldwide campaign is Dr. Raman Sukumar, the well-known Elephant Research Scientist. In an interview published in The Guardian, December 4, 2003, he points out that elephants cannot survive in "small patches of land".
Radio collars
The integrity of the habitats has to be maintained, without displacing people. The reserved land could house settlements. The elephant corridors, however, need to be kept intact for the free movement of elephants. To reduce possible conflicts, he suggests fitting GPS radio collars on elephants, a move reportedly yielding results in West Bengal.
The microchip collars allow the elephants to be tracked by satellite and the information put on a map, daily at forest offices. Officials follow the movements of the elephants, and issue warnings of impending "attacks". In addition, the data helps conservation researchers and scientists to draw programmes to protect and propagate the species.
Central to such programmes is understanding and tolerance. An authority on elephants, Ian Douglas-Hamilton, says that religion and cultural practices could show the way for peaceful coexistence between people and elephants amid ever-increasing pressure on habitats.
"Co-existing with nearly a billion people is not easy for elephants, "cautions Mahesh Rangarajan, in his introduction to The Oxford Anthology of Indian Wildlife, Vol. II. "Yet India's scientific expertise and the sheer perseverance of its conservationists, the deep-seated roles of the wild in its culture, and the growing debate on how best to protect what remains — all these offer hope for the future."
Recent man-elephant conflicts
June 2006: A tribal employee of the Kerala Forest Department successfully darted a rogue elephant that used to plunder crops and often got tipsy, drinking from illicit breweries deep inside the forests. (From The Peninsula Online)
June 2006: The watchman of a garden adjoining the Palani hills was trampled to death by a herd of elephants at Varahapattinam near Ayakudi. (From Chennai Online News Service)
June 2006:In a matter of hours on Monday, trains plying the Siliguri-Alipurduar sector knocked down four elephants and a bison. (From The Telegraph)
June 2006: A rogue elephant that spread terror in tribal hamlets near Peppara wildlife sanctuary was tracked down, tranquilised and trapped by forest authorities. (From NewKerala)
May 2006: With humans rapidly encroaching on the natural habitat of wildlife, the otherwise calm and composed elephants have decided to take matters into their own and intrude into populated areas in Chattisgarh. (From NewKerala)
May 2006: Plans are being made to re-home elephants that have gone on the rampage after losing their natural forest homes. (From CBBC Newsround)
May 2006: The conflict between man and nature snuffed out the lives of three tuskers in the jungles of north Bengal. (From Express India)
April 2006: An elephant that ran amok after killing a man in Parvaur town on Sunday night was tranquillised early on Monday morning. (From The Hindu)
April 2006: An amorous male elephant bumped into a female elephant while both were carrying tourists in Vietnam's central highlands, badly injuring three people. (From Thanh Nien Daily)
April 2006: Officials in the northern Indian State of Uttaranchal say a male elephant has been killed by villagers near a national park. (From BBC News)
April 2006: Four days after a female elephant was hit and injured by an unidentified truck in Gandhi Nagar area, a tusker died after being involved in an accident. The efforts to lift the elephant by crane and other methods after the accident were expected to be the cause behind its death. (From Central Chronicle, Bhopal)
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