Action for Elephants in Orissa
This year Elephant Family has been stepping up its support for the elephants of east-central India – a critical elephant landscape that was recently showcased through Jungle City Edinburgh 2011 – and little by little this is beginning to pay off: significant progress has now been made to reconnect the fragmented landscape, as well as to reduce the threat of elephants being electrocuted by low-hanging power-lines. Funds raised through Jungle City Edinburgh will help continue these efforts.
The “Elephant State” of Orissa is at the heart of the East-Central Landscape, and still hosts more than 1,800 elephants. It is also an important landscape for Bengal tigers, although at the last count there were only 32 remaining in the entire state, with 23 of these in the Simlipal National Park. In addition, this area is one of the few places left in the world still suitable for the critically endangered gharial crocodile, with efforts being made to breed them in captivity and release them along the Mahanadi River.
Unfortunately this is also one of the most fragmented and degraded landscapes in India, because of encroachment, shifting cultivation, irrigation canals, mining for iron and other metals, and associated industry, such as steelworks. The elephants and other animals have literally been trapped in small pockets of forest not large enough to sustain them, and left unable to cross to their original feeding sites and waterholes.
A severe drought earlier this year made matters worse, and led to the deaths of at least four elephants that had been cut off from their normal sources of water. The rains eventually came, heavier than normal, and in the meantime further deaths were prevented thanks to the response to Elephant Family’s emergency appeal, and the work of its partner organisations.
Elephant Family is working with the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) and the Wildlife Society of Orissa to ensure the maintenance and restoration of waterholes, and connections between them and forest fragments, to the benefit of not just the elephants, but all the wildlife in the region. One of the innovative techniques that WPSI has come up with is the construction of “elephant-friendly ramps” across main irrigation canals, which are now steadily being filled with water. These provide a gentle gradient and a route through steep-sided and concrete-lined canals that are otherwise a barrier to elephant movement. Thanks to Elephant Family and WPSI’s efforts, twelve have now been completed by the Rengali Irrigation Authority, and a further six are under construction. Two of the ramps are already being used by elephants. Meanwhile, four elephant overpasses are being constructed crossing wider stretches of the irrigation canals, and elephants have already been seen using at least one of these.
Donations to the emergency appeal also helped establish Rapid Response Teams that can immediately react when elephants come into contact with local communities. Because of the carving up of the landscape, thirsty, starving and stressed herds regularly try to find a way through crops or areas of human habitation, and encounters between people and elephants are becoming increasingly ugly, with fatalities on both sides. The Rapid Response Teams have therefore been established to help drive elephants away from known areas of conflict and towards better sites for them, working with the local communities while doing so to secure their support and involvement. Forty-five members of the Forest Department and eight senior forest officials were trained and equipped last month for the development of two response teams, the effectiveness of which relies on their collection of relevant information and the reports of their colleagues and local communities.
Finally, Elephant Family and its partner organisations are steadily overcoming the threat of poorly maintained, low-hanging power cables, which are thought to have electrocuted at least 150 elephants in the past ten years, including seven that we know about so far this year. As a first step in addressing this situation, Elephant Family and the Wildlife Society of Orissa have been creating a database of all the low-hanging wires throughout the region, and have already documented more than 180 sites in two districts where the lives of elephants passing underneath the wires are in danger. The details have been passed to the Chief Wildlife Warden for following up with the respective companies. If they fail to act then legal action will be pursued. Media coverage of the problem has already made a difference, with one of the companies responsible correcting the wires in Alusingh village, as pictured above. With ongoing data being collected in Orissa and campaigning on the issue, Elephant Family is confident that the threat to elephants can be overcome before many more lose their lives unnecessarily.
written by Dan Bucknell on 25th October 11
