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Every
day the newspapers of
Assam
come out with screaming headlines of man-elephant conflict
leading to loss of lives on both sides, though the death toll of
human beings is on the higher side. Things have come to such a
pass that everyone seems to be perturbed but with no solution in
sight  as to
how to tackle this problem which has assumed dangerous
proportions in recent times.
Even
the ever-increasing conflict has reverberated on the floor of
the Assam Assembly with members cutting across party lines and
seeking a way out of the elephantine problem.
Reports
pouring from different parts of the State, especially that of
Behali and Misamari in Sonitpur district, Ahatguri in Jorhat
district, Balipara in Udalguri district, Narayanpur in Lakhimpur
district, Kamalabari in Majuli, Charaideo in Sivasagar district,
have painted a grim scenario of man-elephant conflict with
people passing sleepless nights for fear of the wild pachyderm
on the rampage. Four persons were trampled to death by a herd of
wild elephants at Salna reserve forest area in eastern
Assam
on December 7 last year. “The herd mowed down the victims and
literally tore apart two of them,” said A. Das, a wildlife
official.
In
another gruesome incident at Behali on the same day two people
were crushed to death by a herd of wild elephants when it
entered into a village leaving a trail of destruction. The death
toll would have been much higher had it not been for the timely
intervention of the forest rangers who chased away the herd
using fire-crackers.
A
herd of 20-25 elephants killed a person and seriously injured an
eight-year-old boy at the Gutighat village on December 17 last
year in Charaideo subdivision of Sivasagar district.
Wild
elephants during the past five years have claimed 248 lives
while 268 elephants have died during the same period, many of
them becoming victims of retaliation by incensed humans, said a
startling revelation of wildlife department report released last
month.
The
most disturbing trend, the report says, are the villagers
resorting to poisoning the marauding
elephants when in the past they drove them away by beating drums
or bursting firecrackers.
What
is the way out of the situation? This is a question baffling the
wildlife experts, conservationists and officials. Experts point
out that the conflict has been on the rise because of the
shrinkage in habitat of the pachyderms and encroachment upon the
natural elephant corridors.
The
gunning down of an elephant allegedly on the ground of being
‘rogue’ at the Behali tea estate in Sonitpur district on
December 16 last year has come under scathing criticism from
conservationists and wildlife lovers alike. They point out that
the elephant if it had been really a rogue could not have been
identified with certainty as there was no known mark except that
the height of the two elephants matched. “Killing of elephants
is not the solution. The real solution lies in protecting the
reserved forests besides restoring the lost elephant habitat and
corridors,” said an animal rights activist.
However,
Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Mohan Chandra Malakar
said that the elephant had been declared rogue and ordered to be
shot in 2003 after it had trampled five persons. As per State
Forest Department records, the elephant about 10 ft in height
and aged between 45-50 who earned the notorious sobriquet
‘Laden’ from the villagers for terrorizing them had killed
five persons in 2003, four persons in 2004 and wiped out a
family of four in one stroke on the night of November 19 last
year. The State Forest Department (Wildlife Division) hired the
services of eminent hunter Dwipen Ram Phookun to bring down the
elephant.
But
there is a raging controversy surrounding the killing of the
‘rogue’ tusker Laden with the locals and members of several
NGOs including Nature’s Bonyapran, Aaranyak, WWF-India,
Dolphin Foundation, Ecosystems-India, CEE-NE, Centre for
Environment Education, Nature’s Beckon saying that the jumbo
shot dead was an innocent one. Denouncing the killing, the NGOs
said it tantamount to violation of the Wildlife Protection Act,
which states that “no wild animal shall be killed unless all
possible options of capturing, translocating and tranquilizing
are exhausted.” The members lamented that instead of
addressing the root causes of the increasing number of
man-elephant conflict in the state, the authorities concerned
took the hasty decision to kill the elephant proclaiming it as
‘rogue’ when there was lack of substantial evidence.
Moreover, the people’s belief and that of the NGOs gained
further credence when a woman was crushed to death a day after
the ‘rogue’ had been killed. Wildlife activists said they
would seek the intervention of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to
rein in the forest department from proclaiming homeless and
displaced elephants as ‘rogues’ without first clearing the
forest lands of encroachers.
Meanwhile,
Malakar is reported to have said that he ordered the probe as he
had received complaints that the animal killed may not be the
killer rogue against which he had issued death warrants thrice.
With
the growing man-elephant conflicts across the State,
village-level volunteers, who work in tandem with the Forest
Department, have been pressed into service to minimize the loss
of life and property.
Assam
today accounts for half of the country’s total elephant
population of 10,000. Official figures estimate the elephant
population in the wilds of the State at more than 5,524 with 800
of them residing in the
Kaziranga
National Park
. “Unless permission is granted for capturing a few of them
and translocating them elsewhere, there could be more deaths,”
says a forest official on the condition of anonymity.
Under
the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the
Union
Forest
and Environment Ministry has categorized wild elephants under
Schedule 1. This prohibits the capture or killing of elephants
below five feet in height, besides those bearing distinct signs
of pregnancy and mothers with suckling calves. Only the capture
of confirmed wild elephants is possible under the Act, and that
too after the chief wildlife warden obtains Centre’s
permission.
It
may be recalled here that retired Chief Conservator of Forests,
S.P. Sahi heading a commission constituted by the Centre to
examine the phenomenon in the wake of large scale rampage caused
by elephants in
Assam
had recommended the capture of 100 elephants. But when the then
AGP Government ordered the capture of 95 elephants, it drew flak
from all quarters.
The
elephant habitat in
Assam
occurs in distinct contiguous belts flanking the two major
valleys –
Brahmaputra
and Barak. These belts are contiguous to elephant habitat of
other states and countries, mainly
Bhutan
, say an elephants’ census report of the State Forest
Department.
Conservationists
alarmed by the increasing number of elephants and the rapid
shrinkage of habitat, feel that the state’s fragile ecosystem
will be unable to support them. “It’s high time the
elephants habitat are restored by clearing the forest areas from
encroachers and preventing destruction of forests,” said an
elephant expert, adding, “where will the poor creatures live
when their own habitat is intruded upon by human; the places
they are reported to have wrecked havoc were once their original
habitat.”
Interestingly,
startling figures disclosed by Ajoy Sarmah of Nature’s
Bonyapran said out of the 14,016 hectare of Behali reserve
forest areas - the worst scene of man-elephant conflict leading
to high death toll - 3,375 hectare has been encroached upon.
Wildlife
activists say, following shrinkage in its habitat, a change in
the behavioural pattern of pachyderm has been noticed,
especially of those living in areas between the
Barail
Reserve
Forest
and the forests and tea estates located towards the north of the
Naipuh
Reserve
Forest
.
Noted
environmentalist Anwaruddin Choudhury of the Guwahati-based
Rhino Foundation for Nature says destructive behaviour by the
elephants points to serious ecological degradation in their
natural habitat in
Barail
Reserve
Forest
and in
North Cachar
.
Most
environmentalists echo his views as they feel that widespread
felling of trees by timber smugglers in cahoots with a section
of corrupt police and district administration officials and
encroachment in the reserve forest areas over the years have
been the root causes of the tuskers going out on a rampage.
“As is their wont elephants are by nature of cool temperament
but when they feel threatened in their own habitat they are
bound to retaliate,” said a wildlife activist.
It
is against this gloomy scenario, the Union Ministry of Forest
and Environment’s Project Elephant may well pave the way for a
‘compact corridor’ for wild elephants keeping in view the
rapid shrinkage of their habitat and, at the same time, check
the depredations caused by them.
The
corridor is to be carved out across 273 km near the Barail North
Cachar Hills. Besides, the Ministry has suggested the setting up
of three more elephant reserves.
Another
successful project has been erecting solar fencing at Dehimukh
reserve forest to keep at bay the wild elephants from straying
into human habitation. Talking to this writer, S.K. Srivastav,
Conservator of Forests (
Eastern Assam Circle
) said that solar fencing worked out really well as there were
no reports of any loss or damage to life and property in the 30
villages on the fringes of Dehimukh reserve forest. “We have
already put up 10 km stretch of solar fencing another 13 km will
be added to it soon,” said Srivastav adding, “care has also
been taken that adequate fodder crop is grazed for the elephants
beyond the fencing.”
Conservationists
and wildlife activists agree that if solar fencing is put up in
areas where elephant attacks have been most rampant and Project
Elephant goes off well, it will go a long way in solving this
elephantine problem.
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