How Karnataka is giving elephants their ‘right’ to safe passage

Elephants have for centuries been celebrated as figures of religious and cultural reverence. They have also been part of our bedtime stories and folktales. So significant has been their importance to India that the country recognises them as the National Heritage Animal, according them the strictest level of protection under the law. However, for people who live in the vicinity of elephant habitats, the relationship with jumbos has been a complicated one with both humans and elephants fighting over one resource — land.

But in Karnataka, which hosts the highest number of elephants in India, a unique instance was reported recently after a group of farmers themselves offered to hand over their land for elephant corridor.

Of the nearly 30,000 Indian elephants, 6,399 are in found in Karnataka, where the government has cleared a proposal to secure over 3,000 acres of agricultural land, adjoining the forest boundary in Hassan district, after the farmers themselves offered the land.

Since years, the Hassan district has been battling with the menace of man-elephant conflict in the Alur Sakleshpur area leading to loss of lives of both humans and the animal.

The farmers, especially those farming along the forest boundary, arrived at the decision to hand over their land for dedicated elephant corridors after suffering crop losses year after year and finding it difficult to venture in the area.

The farmers group had made a representation to Karnataka’s Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment Eshwar Khandre. Khandre took up the issue with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and got the proposal cleared. A shrewd economist, Siddaramaiah, asked Khandre to make use of reserve funds deposited by mining companies, as per compensatory afforestation programme norms, to pay the farmers.

“We are planning to use the acquired land to extend the elephant corridor which will help save lives and property,” the minister said.

Khandre also says that the government is planning to secure agricultural land from the farmers to create an elephant corridor around Bengaluru city. “Our plan is to buy land from farmers and plant fruit-bearing trees. With trees around, elephants don’t feel the need to venture out of forests, as basically, they visit urban spaces in search of food and water,” he said.

According to sources in the government, an estimated 11,653 acres of forest land and 3,355.23 acres of private land is available at Hethur Hobli in Sakleshpur adjacent to the forest area in Hassan division. The private landholders in eight villages of Hethur Hobli have agreed to voluntarily hand over 3,143.02 acres of land, provided they are given suitable compensation.

Looking back two centuries

The human-elephant conflict in Karnataka is over two centuries old. Gerhard Richter, a noted landscape artist, mentioned about one such incident in the Gazetteer of Coorg, in 1822. According to Richter’s account, people complained to the Maharaja of Kodagu about the destruction of crops and houses by elephants.

According to an article published in The Indian Forester, the oldest journal on tropical forestry, on Koundinya Wildlife Sanctuary, elephants returned to Andhra Pradesh in 1984 after a gap of 200 years and started living in dry deciduous forests in southernmost parts of Chittoor district.

Initially, elephants caused considerable damage to man and crops. In retaliation, over 12 elephants were eliminated by the natives. However, the situation normalised with the implementation of joint Forest Management practices, including the Project Elephant scheme. Efforts yielded encouraging results in mitigating human-elephant conflict and increasing the elephant population by the day.

Nearly four decades since, increase in human population and rapid encroachment of forest land by humans has led to increased instances of man-elephant conflicts.

Man against wild

According to the Karnataka Forest Department, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu and Mysuru reported the highest instances of elephant attacks in 2022. Over five years, from 2018 to 2023, 148 people died in elephant attacks. In the same period, 50 elephants were killed by people after they strayed into agricultural fields in search of food and water. And this has prompted the government to take an ‘elephant friendly’ and ‘pro-farmer’ approach to strengthen the elephant corridors in the state.

Interestingly, according to the 2023 census report, Karnataka has 346 more elephants than it did in 2017. The problem of elephant-human conflict is more pronounced in south Karnataka where there is a higher concentration of elephants.

In September 2023, the Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India identified nine elephant corridors in Karnataka — Karadikal-Madeshwara (Ragihalli corridor range), Tali Bilikkal (Tamil Nadu and Karnataka), Bilikkal-Javalagiri (Tamil Nadu and Karnataka), Edayahalli-Guttiyalattur (Tamil Nadu and Karnataka), Edayahalli-Doddasampige (Karnataka), Chamarajanagara-Talamalai at Muddahalli (Tamil Nadu and Karnataka), Kaniyanpura-Moyar and Beguru-Brahmagiri (Karnataka and Kerala).

Out of the identified corridors, one stands impaired and requires immediate restoration to facilitate the movement of the pachyderms. On the other hand, there is increased intensity of use in three other corridors.

MOEFCC has recommended that the state forest department should notify seven of the nine corridors to protect them from encroachment and development activities. For the remaining two, the state government has been advised eviction of encroached areas and habitat improvements.

Of these, the state has secured the Edayahalli-Doddasampige corridor by buying 25.37 acres of private land in 2017 and Chamarajanagar-Talamalai by securing 16.30 acres of private land in 2021-22.

“There is a demand for expansion of the Kaniyanpura-Moyar and Beguru-Brahmagiri (Karnataka-Kerala range) elephant corridor. A proposal has been sent to the government in this regard,” director of Bandipur Tiger Project Dr Ramesh Kumar said.

According to sources in the forest department, there is a need to acquire an estimated 600 acres of land and take up the project of afforestation, which will help in containing man and animal conflict.

The Karnataka government is hoping to achieve two objectives by developing elephant corridors. The first is to minimise human and elephant contact and thus conflict and the second is to reduce the financial burden.

According to Eshwar Khandre, presently the government has to hand over a compensation of Rs 15 lakh to the kin of those who die due to elephant attack. An additional pension of Rs 4,000 is also given. “The government can save this expenditure,” says Khandre.

A pan-India problem

Even though Karnataka hosts the highest number of elephants, man-jumbo conflicts are not unique to the state. It is a problem faced in all elephant-habitat regions as India is home to 29,964 elephants, according to the recent census.

The Eastern and Western Ghats, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal are all facing the brunt of man- animal conflict.

In 2021, Maharashtra recorded 86 human deaths due to elephant attacks and in 2022, the number rose to 2022, a sharp increase compared to the last decade, when average human deaths were around 40. The government of Maharashtra pays Rs 20 lakh as compensation to the kin of the deceased.

According to the forest department records of Kerala, between January 3, 2021 and June 28, 2023, a total of 283 wild elephants died in the forests and nearby regions. Interestingly, more than half of these elephants were male. The highest number of elephant deaths was documented in Kuttampuzha (17), Idamalayar (12) Athirapally (10) and Adimaly (10) forest areas. Out of the deceased elephants 129 were female, while the gender of five elephants could not be determined due to the advanced state of decomposition of their carcasses.

Between 2018 and 2022, wild male elephants attacked and killed 105 people in Kerala. As per the State Chief Wildlife Warden’s office reports, more than half of these incidents occurred in the last two years with 27 people killed by wild elephants. Notably, the eastern circle in Palakkad had the highest number of victims, with 38 people falling prey to wild elephants. The northern circle in Kannur and the high range circle in Kottayam each accounted for 17 victims, followed by 11 in the central circle in Thrissur, seven in both the southern circle in Kollam and the wildlife circle in Palakkad.

The number of elephant corridors has gone up due to the unprecedented land fragmentation in the past decade. According to the Wildlife Trust of India’s (WTI) Right of Passage Report, in 2005, WTI had identified 88 key corridors. But by 2015 that number had risen to 101, confirming reports of reckless and unsustainable land management.

The elephant census report released in August 2023 showed the animal’s population in Tamil Nadu was rising. The number of elephants in the state has risen from 2,761 in 2017 to 2,961 by 2023. Tamil Nadu has five elephant reserves.

Man and animal conflict has resulted in 50 deaths and injured 82 people in the Pollachi division of Coimbatore district in the last 10 years, according to sources in the forest department of Tamil Nadu. The majority of victims were labourers of tea and coffee estates which elephants visit for food and water.

Significantly, 75 elephants died between 2012-2013 and 2021-2022. Tamil Nadu has 17 designated elephant corridors. Many new corridors may emerge soon as some old corridors have been fragmented due to land-use change and elephant herds tend to find new routes in the home range.

To tide over the problem, India is increasing the number of elephant corridors. Currently, the country has as many as 150 elephant corridors.

An elephant corridor is a strip of land using which elephants move between friendly habitats. Given that forest land is being lost rapidly due to developmental projects and rapid urbanisation, the relatively narrow, linear patches of vegetation in elephant corridors form vital natural habitat linkages between larger forest patches. They allow elephants to move freely without being disturbed by humans. Additionally, elephant corridors are also critical for other wildlife, including tigers.

West Bengal has the most elephant corridors — 26 — amounting to 17 per cent of the total corridors, the report said. East central region contributed to 35 per cent, that is 52 corridors, while North East region was second largest with 32 per cent number meaning 48 corridors in total.

Around 450 people were killed by elephants in West Bengal between 2015 and September 2023. In Assam alone, 561 people were killed due to elephant attacks from 2014 to 2022.

West Bengal is currently working on improving its elephant corridors in collaboration with Japan to reduce both humans and elephant deaths.

Are corridors the final solution?

While elephant corridors are flagged as the ultimate solution to the ongoing man-elephant conflict, some question its efficacy as the only resolve to the vexed issue.

R Sukumar, writer and professor of ecology at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, in one of his pieces on the issue, observes that Karnataka is not only home to the largest elephant population in India but also strengthened the first elephant corridor in the country. Strengthening corridors avoids further fragmentation of large landscapes and reduces the risks of conflicts between elephants and people at these locations. But, he argued, corridors should not be thought of as a panacea for resolving man and animal conflicts.

According to Sukumar, conflict management has to go much beyond strengthening elephant corridors. The report submitted by the Karnataka Elephant Task Force to the Karnataka High Court in 2012 laid out the framework for managing elephant populations of the state. Most of the task force’s recommendations were accepted by the High Court in its judgment of October 2013. These recommendations included designating three zones for managing elephants; the Elephant Conservation Zone, Elephant Human Coexistence Zone and Elephant Removal Zone.

It is time for the government to revisit the report of the Karnataka Elephant Task Force and implement its practical recommendations to safeguard both the wild elephant population as well as people’s lives and livelihoods.

(With inputs from Rajeev Ramachandran, Jinka Nagaraj Samir Kar Purkayastha and Tamil Nadu News Bureau.)