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Significant Progress Made in Securing a Key Elephant Corridor
At the end of last month, the Wildlife Trust of India moved a significant step closer to securing one of the most vital elephant corridors in India. In conjunction with the Forest Department and with the support of Elephant Family, the fourth settlement within the Tirunelli-Kudrakote Corridor has been secured, leaving just one more before the whole 2,200 acre corridor is fully protected and can be handed over to the State Forest Department to become an extension of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. The Kottapadi Settlement was secured by facilitating the voluntary relocation away from the conflict zone of the lone resident, Lakshmi Amma, popularly known as "Avva" (which translates literally as ‘elderly lady’ in the local Malayalam language), to a new and more prosperous life in the village of Panavaly.
Securing corridors – the traditional migration routes of elephants – is the highest priority for Asian elephant conservation, to maintain the vital connections between wildlife reserves and other forest patches in otherwise fragmented landscapes. If the corridors are lost, they are lost forever, and stranded elephants will increasingly come into conflict with people.
The Tirunelli-Kudrakote corridor in Kerala State is one of the most important corridors to be secured. This is a 2,200-acre strip of land that ultimately links the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary of Kerala with the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary of Karnataka within the wider Nilgiri Landscape, home to the world’s largest population of Asian elephants, numbering up to 6,500 in total.
When the project began, the corridor area was inhabited by 54 families in five settlements. Through land purchase and the voluntary relocation of villagers, the Wildlife Trust of India is steadily securing this corridor. The villagers are offered attractive resettlement packages of good quality housing and agricultural land, but often just the prospect of moving away from the constant threats of crop raiding, property damage, or worse by elephants is sufficient incentive in itself. Thanks to the investment of Elephant Family – as well as the World land Trust and the Dutch office of IUCN – three of the settlements had been fully relocated at the beginning of this year. With further investment since, Elephant Family has helped the Wildlife Trust of India acquire the 8.5 acres of land at Kottapadi.
“As part of our national elephant corridor securement project, we had already secured land from Thirulakunnu, Valiya Emmadi and Pulayankolly settlements”, said Dr Sandeep Kumar Tiwari of the Wildlife Trust of India. “The Kottapadi securement was unique as Lakshmi was the only resident here. In all of these land securement cases, we ensure that the residents being relocated feel that the process was justified. Lakshmi Amma had a different sense of justification in that she needed to be sure that the land was used for a good cause and we are proud that she found that in our project,”
Lakshmi had been living in the corridor for forty years since moving there with her husband. She continued living there since being widowed 17 years, growing coffee, guava and pepper for subsistence, and with a 3km trek to the next village to get supplies. While leaving was a sad and difficult end of an era, with the onset of old-age she had been eager to move out of the forest for the past five years. Only circumstance and lack of any opportunity to move had kept her in Kottapadi until now.
“I [had] already heard about the relocation programme of WTI in Thirulakunnu, Valiya Emmadi and Pulayankolly villages to secure the elephant corridor”, said Lakshmi. “I saw some of the relocated villagers in Panavaly and they said they got very good [relocation] package. Now we are sleeping safely without the fear of elephants.”
However, for some reason Lakshmi had never had any trouble with elephants – or any other animals, for that matter – and she puts this down to Lord Ganesha, the Hindu elephant-headed god. Others believe that she must have extraordinary powers to have been living among the elephants without difficulty all that time. Whatever the case, a small statue of Ganesha was one of the few things she took with her on leaving her forest home, as pictured above.
“I refused to give this land [Kottapadi] for tourism and other purposes”, she continued. “Now I am happily giving this land to WTI because they are buying this land for conserving my children, the elephants.”
Lakshmi has since settled in to her new home in Panavaly, where the Wildlife Trust of India has also set her up with 100,000 rupees (more than £1,400) and a 0.25 acre plot on which she can grow coffee, pepper and coconut. “Initially I thought that I would never get the chance to be living outside forest with some good land and a respectable house. But WTI made it possible and I really appreciate the organisation”, she said.
This now leaves just the fifth and final village, Edayurvahal, to be secured. However this is the largest settlement in the corridor area and has 18 tribal families and private land belonging to two families. Helping these communities to successfully relocate in a similar fashion to all the other communities is therefore anticipated to take up to 18 months. Only then will the corridor be fully secured and designated a protected area once and for all.
written by Dan Bucknell on 26th October 10
