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The jumbo highway

Karnataka is the first in the country to notify an Elephant Corridor
and two of them are already in place including the Kanniyanpura
Corridor near Moyar River at the Bandipur National Park and the
Bekkattur Arabikere Corridor that connects the Kollegal Reserve
Forest division to Billigiri Ranga Sanctuary, Malini Shankar tells
us.



The elephant corridors are part of the Elephant Reserve 7, which has
been christened the Mysore Elephant Reserve by the Karnataka Forest
Department. This Elephant Reserve 7 originates in the Nilgiris and
connects the Eastern Ghats to the Western Ghats, through the Nilgiris
Biosphere Reserve.

This reserve further connects to the Brahmagiri Thirunelli Elephant
Corridor. Professor Raman Sukumar, chairman of the Centre For
Ecological Sciences in the Indian Institute of Science, a well-known
pachyderm scientist, explains "the land for the Arabikere corridor
has been purchased by the Wildlife Trust of India, in association
with the Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre and it will
be eventually handed over to the State Forest Department so that this
land gets incorporated into the protected area and not diverted for
any non wildlife purpose."

Protected area network


The Elephant Reserve seeks to provide a protected area network for
the preferred migratory paths of the gentle beast. This corridor
connects Nilgiris through the Erode Hills, Dharmapuri Hills, Thali
forest to Anekal forests, the Bannerghatta Biological Park, Cauvery
Wildlife sanctuary, Malai Mahadeshwara Hills, Kollegal forests,
Sathyamangalam Plains, Billigiri Ranga Temple Wildlife Sanctuary,
Mudumalai, Bandipur National Park, (all Eastern Ghats) Wynad, WL
sanctuary (in Kerala) Nagarhole National Park, to Brahmagiri Hills in
the Western Ghats. This elephant reserve spreads over an area
6,724.87 square kilometres. This reserve has the highest number of
wild Asian elephant population in the whole world.

The purpose of the corridor is to provide connectivity of elephant
habitats. Since the habitat is getting fragmented, the need for
strengthening these connecting forest areas and migrating paths of
the endangered Asian elephant is critical.

The Kanniyanpura corridor was possible thanks to the funds that the
Project Elephant allocated to the Karnataka Forest Department. Says
Prof Sukumar "the idea is that the elephants should be able to use
the said land to freely move between the BRTWL sanctuary and the
forests of the Kollegal division freely."

The department bought additional 300 odd metres of land from the
revenue department near Moyar Gorge at the Karnataka-TN border. The
extra land enabled realignment of the elephant protection trench and
then the corridor was no longer just 50 metres at its narrowest
point – it became 350 metres.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests, facilitated the buying of
this land through the Project Elephant. Habitat conservation is
crucial for conservation of sustainable elephant population and
conserving the genetic diversity of the existing herds.

Besides, like Project Tiger, the Project Elephant too seeks to
protect habitat for a variety of endangered species like wild dogs,
tigers, bos gaurus, sambar and other kinds of deer, elephants, avian
fauna smaller mammals and not the least, reptiles, butterflies etc.
Estimates of elephant population in this reserve by wildlife
biologists, forest officials and scientists vary; they opine that
there are atleast 4,500 to 8,000 elephants roaming in this vast area.

This is the largest elephant population in Asia and also the largest
protected area dedicated exclusively to the Asian elephant anywhere
in the world.

Man-Elephant conflict

However the elephants do not exactly have green meadows everywhere to
trumpet home about. Realities like human-elephant conflict,
fragmentation of habitat, and poaching are the main challenges to
elephant conservation.

Human-elephant conflict arises from shrinking elephant habitats -
these are habitats, which are usurped by man to cultivate food
grains. Until land use policy is legislated, encroachment will
remain. Another reason is selective crop raiding. Once elephants
taste a certain crop there is no stopping them. Unless we create
enough awareness among poor farmers that they can indeed change
cropping patterns.

Plantation owners

"Plantation owners must abstain from burying illicit country made
liquor on forest fringe plantations. Farmers must also abstain from
cultivating sugarcane in farms that abut forest fringes. Compensation
to farmers must be expedited and scientifically validated.

The ideal solution would be alternate cropping and extensive buffer
zone plantations. Compensation remains a short-sighted method insofar
as it is not a long term solution," opines Madhusudan, Project
Officer of the Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre in the
Centre for Ecological Sciences at Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore.

Adds Prof Sukumar "there has to be a legislation to protect
corridors. The land use policy has to be defined and backed by
administrative cooperation, and political will.

Challenges to habitat conservation remain - in that revenue lands
with forest cover - titled C and D class lands have to be transferred
to the forest department, there will be opportunities to restore
forest land as per the stipulations of the Kyoto Protocol." Other
challenges include pockets of plantations in the midst of forest
areas where "estate owners have to be persuaded not to undertake any
developmental activity detrimental to elephant movement."

Tribals living in the migratory paths of elephants - elephant
corridors - are simply desperate to move out, as they are exhausted
with human wildlife conflict. All they want is a good rehabilitation
package and viable good alternatives to livelihood and sustenance.
Again, it calls for political will."

Capturing rogue elephants and relocating them is just as short
sighted a measure. Elephants with their spectacular memory are known
to trace their migratory paths back to home ranges. Besides it
adversely affects the gene pool and gender ratios in a particular
herd. "For every elephant captured there is one lesser male elephant
in the wild," says Madhusudan.

HABITAT CONSERVATION

As part of the thrust for habitat conservation, the forest department
is undertaking consolidation of habitat with measures like management
of marshy glades or swamps for fodder lands as well as fire lines
management. This would be physically separated from forest area by
cattle proof and elephant proof trenches, solar fencing will also
buffer the forest areas. Besides, the marshy glades serve another
crucial purpose… "it enriches the fodder banks for elephants within
protected areas.

This helps in eliminating obnoxious weeds like Lantana, Eupatorium,
Parthenium among others" according to Deputy Conservator of Forests
of the BRTWL sanctuary, Dr C S Raju.

The forest department also claims to `adopt strategies to
scientifically manage forest fires' in an effort to usher the growth
of new crop of succulent grass at the onset of monsoons.

This scientific management of forest fires, says the DCF, sterilises
the grasslands from spread of veterinary infections from grazing
cattle and other wild animals.

"It is simply shocking to see the Soligas graze cattle near the Dodda
Sampige Tree which is in the core area of the sanctuary," says
Nagendra, a wildlife activist.

Denying that water holes create artificial density of wildlife, the
DCF said, "We have to undertake desilting of water holes, as even
elephants can get trapped in the silt. We study the geographical
spread of the wildlife before pitting water holes. Wild animals are
not penned, thus they have to have their range of distribution, which
is possible with wildlife management strategies like water holes,
salt licks (for smaller herbivores), trenches, and the like; water
hole management is based on this premise. Infact we also study the
rainwater acquifers, water percolation-drainage patterns before
deciding on locations of the waterholes."


--- In IPRNG@..., "Dr. M. Mahadevappa"
<mahadevrice@y...> wrote:
> Dear Pankaj,
>
> The page is not opening. I am sending the message as it appears
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>