Elephant conflict: We humans, are obstructing jumbos path!

Mangaluru: The human interference in the traditional elephant movement corridors along the stretch from Charmadi to Shiradi, Bisile, and Pushpagiri to Kerala seems to be a major cause of increased man-elephant conflict in recent times.

In recent times, rising reports of jumbos harming humans and damaging crops in the Western Ghats have raised concerns about both human and animal safety.

According to experts, the primary obstruction identified is the development of the Shiradi Ghat highway. The construction activities including retaining walls on both the valley and hill side of the road, impede the elephants’ natural passage, according to the forest department officials.

Natural elephant corridors are not only crucial for the daily movement and foraging needs of the elephant herds, but also vital for their health, experts say.

Too few animal underpasses

One way to mitigate the obstruction of these natural corridors is to build animal underpasses at strategic locations. However, there are only three 10-foot-high animal underpasses built in the forest area along Shiradi Ghai—Periyashanti, Rekhya, and Addahole. This is far from ideally required along the 50-kilometer-stretch forest route that has served as an elephant corridor for centuries, experts say.

Fragmented grazing area

A healthy elephant roams at least 50 square km per day to fulfill its needs. However, the ongoing rapid highway work over the past four to five years, including rock breaking, retaining wall construction, and land leveling, scares these often-shy giants, and obstructs their free movement, confining them to one side of the highway. This has limited the grazing area available for the tuskers, experts added.

Parts of Charmadi still have substantial forest area giving ample grazing ground for the herds. However, the increase in human activity Shiradi and Kempuhole poses a significant threat to wild elephants, they say.

Human habitation in buffer zone forests

Forest officials also point out the rise in human habitations in buffer zones adjoining forest land as a cause of concern. In the past, most of the buffer zones were forested and uninhabited. Humans have been gradually encroaching into these zones. Due to this, human-elephant conflict has further increased, they added.

Antony Mariappa, DCF, Mangalore Division refuted the popular opinion that food scarcity in the forest land drives tuskers to enter plantations. “Elephants try to change their path when their traditional routes are blocked by the daily traffic. When that happens it is common for them to enter the plantations while trying to find alternative routes, and not due to food scarcity” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Karikalan, Forest Officer of the Mangalore circle, asserts that although elephants aren’t regularly present in the area, they occasionally enter nearby plantations within the corridor, requiring forest staff intervention.

To mitigate these issues, the forest department has implemented various measures, including constructing elephant-proof ditches, solar wire fences, and solar double-line tentacle fencing. Notably, significant lengths of trenches and fences have been erected between 2020 and 2023.