A Fresh and Timely Approach to Saving Elephants and People
Elephant Family has recently partnered with the Nature Conservation Foundation in the Anamalai Hills of southern India on a project that is literally a matter of life or death. Anamalai means “elephant hill” as this region has historically been an elephant stronghold. Yet much of their forest home has been cleared for commercial tea, coffee, and cardamom plantations, which now chequer the landscape, particularly on the Valparai Plateau. The plantations are of little interest to the elephants as anything other than a route to another part of what is left of the forest. But any chance encounter between elephants and people in the plantations can be deadly. Building on the Nature Conservation Foundation’s initiatives to date, their project with Elephant Family will therefore develop a number of early-warning systems to prevent such encounters.
The urgent need for this project was illustrated very tragically just last month, when three women workers of one of the tea plantations were trampled to death by a herd of three elephants. The local newspapers quickly picked up on the incident and reported how a group of ten tea-pickers were on their way to have their daily pickings weighed when the three elephants emerged from the nearby forest and charged them, killing three of them while the other seven managed to escape. One of the reports went on to describe how the elephants remained in the area for some time afterwards, delaying the recovery of their bodies.
However, M. Ananda Kumar, the project coordinator for the Nature Conservation Foundation, has subsequently pointed out that this was the first such incident that took place during the day in the tea plantations for more than 16 years, and that the newspapers were not telling the whole story. According to eyewitnesses, there were 24 people who were busy picking tea that day near a patch of forest, and that three of the women fell short of the required daily amount. While others were busy weighing the tea, they were asked to pick more right near the edge of the forest. Nobody had realised that elephants were inside the strip of forest, which runs along a stream that is the elephants’ only source of water in the area. Everybody was therefore understandably shocked when the elephants suddenly emerged – perhaps due to disturbance – and many of the workers began shouting and running away. Equally surprised, two of the elephants gave a bluff charge, but quickly went back. Having picked extra tea the three women then appeared right in the middle of the fracas without realising the elephants were there, and this led to the tragic accident.
Anand believes that the incident would have been easily avoided if people had been aware that elephants were in the forest, and that his project with Elephant Family could prevent such accidents in the future. He is also very conscious of how the local media are increasingly portraying the elephants as a dangerous, malevolent presence, and that this is only making things worse. Emotions are understandably running high, and with dangerous encounters between people and elephants increasing, the workers are demanding that the authorities and plantation managers intervene. But from all accounts this has led to very little action so far. Anand is meanwhile continuing to investigate exactly what happened so that he can target his initiatives more effectively.
The Nature Conservation Foundation has already significantly reduced the number of dangerous encounters between people and elephants, by developing ways of sharing information on the whereabouts of elephants between the plantation workers, local tribal communities, women self-help groups and others. Building on their success, the partnership with Elephant Family will enable them to develop this information system. Reports on the movements of elephants over the local media will be incorporated into the system, along with a variety of early-warning systems to alert people to the presence of elephants. The latter include red warning lights in the plantations and settlements, which give people plenty of time to clear the area and allow the elephants to pass. These can be triggered by trip-wires or remotely by mobile phone. In this way Anand expects to show how it’s possible for people and elephants to coexist peacefully, offering hope for other areas where loss of habitat has forced elephants into dangerous encounters with people.
Read one of the original news reports here.
The above picture, courtesy of the Nature Conservation Foundation, shows how extreme the situation can be for elephants and people on the Valparai Plateau.
written by Dan Bucknell on 08th March 11
