Outwitting the Tuskers

[Guest guest]

Link: http://www.assamtribune.com/sunday.html

 

Outwitting the Tuskers

 

Indeed, the solution to the seemingly unsolvable man-elephant conflict

lies in rectifying and undoing the wrongs of the past four decades. We

have no option but to admit our mistakes, accept our faults and make a

sincere resolve to dedicate the best of our efforts, resources and

talents, with selfless commitment towards pushing the situation back

to normal or near normal.

 

Let us ask ourselves which is the most obvious cause for the elephants

to move out and remain almost entirely in human habitations.

Definitely, destruction of prime elephant habitat is the cause. So we

must revive the lost forest covers. This we can work out in a planned

and phased manner by prioritising the most elephant depredation

affected areas. Then mapping the existing forest covers, making a

comparison of what was the extent of forest coverage, say, thirty

years back, for that particular area. And then take up a massive

reforestation operation with non-timber tree species with active

involvement of local communities, with assigned plantation blocks to

be raised by different community units within a target time period.

 

The next most crucial measure in the over all mitigation strategy

would directly involve the major sufferers i.e. the farmers in more

practical and participatory measures. Elephants are very much

attracted to paddy crops and are prone to feed on paddy year after

year and in most cases, it has been seen that different elephant

herds, specific to an area, have developed a definite crop raiding

pattern which is quite systematic and cyclic in some cases. This is so

because the elephant, being an intelligent animal, had always used

definitive grazing movements and migrations when foraging in their

forest habitat. Having been feeding on ripe paddy since the last many

years, despite relentless efforts by farmers to chase them away, the

elephant herds have become quite intrepid and stubborn. Here the need

arises to cultivate something in the fields which are not so

attractive to the elephants. This directly implies what we call

rotation of crops, or rather, alteration of crops. Rice is our staple

food and paddy is the principal crop cultivated by our farmers, but it

is not the most commercially profitable of crops. So, our rice

cultivators are neither very rich nor extremely poor but crop raiding

by elephants has rendered many of our rice farmers impoverished. To

make things go better both ways, we can initiate alternative crop

cultivation, if necessary, in a co-operative marketing setup or buy

back plan, in the elephant depredation zones.

 

The next and one of the most important strategies for an over all

elephant depredation solution also involves local farmers and

communities. This we can call " Community based elephant monitoring and

conflict mitigation " . It is to be a systematic and well co-ordinated

exercise that will attain its perfectness and effectivity with

constant practice. In this procedure, the need is to set up teams of

`farmer elephant watchers' for each village or rice cultivation block

in an elephant conflict area. These teams of watchers would take up

positions in front line areas through which elephants usually enter

larger cultivated areas at late evenings or in the afternoon. This is

called early warning system. Once elephants are spotted proceeding

towards the rice fields and villages, the job of the elephant

watchers' group is to initiate a warning noisy din, using drums, fire

flares, blowing whistles etc. This would alert the villagers and

communities near the fields to be ready. This practice would

definitely save the lives of some innocent villagers, many of whom, as

seen in recent days, have often been attacked by elephants while

asleep and trampled to death. Moreover, it would also be able to send

back the elephants in most cases, depending upon the magnitude of

noises created by the watchers.

 

Another crucial strategy which is to be practised by villagers is to

use red chillies to deter elephants from entering the fields. The

essence of chillies is very irritating to elephants and repels them.

This is a simple method used widely in Africa, particularly in

Zimbabwe. The method is quite simple. Chilli powder, mixed with used

engine oil, is applied along a long rope that is erected on bamboo

poles across the elephant movement route or edges of farms at a height

of 1.5 metres above the ground. Cowbells are attached to the rope at

regular intervals as an early warning system. The length of the rope

may be extended to a kilometre or more as per requirement of the

villagers. This rope and chilli fence warning system is to be watched

and monitored by watchers. The mixture of chilli and engine oil is to

be regularly applied to the rope. It is a very effective method and

has been very successful in Africa.

 

One of the most important measures which has to be taken by the Forest

department in a more organised and sophisticated manner is to set up

an effective " elephant drive out mechanism " . This strategy should

include stationing more kunki elephants under the DFOs of all the

elephant conflict zones. Squads of eight to ten elephants should be

stationed at each of the specific elephant depredation belts in

Sonitpur, Sivasagar, Golaghat, Dibrugarh, Nagaon. Kamrup and Goalpara,

under well trained mahouts. These squads should respond immediately,

led by Forest officials, at the intrusion of any wild elephant. With

more than one thousand domestic elephants in the State, this would not

be a difficult job. Now the most crucial question – does the Forest

department have the financial resources required for this? Well, when

the State and Central Governments are spending so much money on

different development projects, it needs to pay attention to the

menace of man-elephant conflicts which has directly endangered human

lives. So, the Government must go ahead in providing the Forestry

department as much money as needed. Of course, it is the duty of the

Forest department to make a sincere estimation of all costs.

No strategy to control the man-elephant conflict would be successful,

even partially, without enhancing the forest and wildlife conservation

laws as this would form one of the most crucial aspects in the overall

strategy. Currently, we have laws of course, but these do not address

the most destructive assault to forest land, which is definitely

encroachment, in an effective way.. The laws against encroachers are

such that it even morally encourages further encroachment. Sonitpur

and Golaghat forests are a brazen example of this. In the long run,

such encroachment and encroachers become political gimmicks. We need

laws that conserve elephant habitats and not illegal encroachers. It

is a noteworthy fact that in most cases of encroachment, each

encroacher has far more land under encroachment than any genuine

farmer or landholder has in the villages under settlement laws. This

clearly shows the tendency and motive of the encroachers. Besides, we

also need to strengthen laws to punish those who poison elephants,

poach them and trade in ivory. Currently, illegal loggers are ravaging

many prime elephant habitats, Abhaypur and Dilli Reserved Forests in

Sivasagar district and Nambar North Reserved Forest of Golaghat are

glaring examples. Laws need to be strengthened against all the

components and organs of the illegal logging syndicates, which

comprise of the loggers who cut trees in the forests, the truck

drivers and owners who carry them and the kingpin bosses on whose

behalf these operations are being carried out. These are the people

who are wiping out the elephant habitats and pushing them out to

terrorise innocent villagers.

 

All the planned out objectives and strategies would materialise only

after we strengthen the ultimate managerial machinery which is the

Forest department. Faced with multifarious problems and hurdles; the

Forest department, in its present status, is least equipped in every

faculty, both mentally and materially. Lack of resources is crippling

the Forest department to such an extent that it is in no way capable

of facing up to a crisis of such a magnitude as this man-elephant

conflict. The same incapability is also preventing the Forest

department in effectively facing the menace of illegal logging.

 

The Forest department will have to be made the hub of this

elephant-man conflict mitigation strategy and for that we need to

strengthen their financial, material, manpower resources, work out a

composite master plan, involve local people, acquire expert

consultancy and co-ordination whenever necessary and go ahead with a

noble heart and strong determination.

 

However, we must remember that man-elephant conflicts have been a part

of the life and culture of Assam since time immemorial, during the

British period, during the Ahom rule, during the Mughal conquest and

even before that, so we must be ready even after our best efforts to

see a reduction or minimisation of this phenomenon but we can never

eradicate it completely.

 

Asif Ahmed Hazarika