Coimbatore : While habitat fragmentation is haunting the remaining Asian elephant population in the country at a larger scale forcing the pachyderm to often come into conflict with humans, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in partnership with a few organisations is working at different levels to secure the unsecured elephant corridors in India, of which only 12.9 per cent fall under forest cover.
With five corridors completely secured, the organisation is looking forward to securing the remaining 96 of the 101 corridors in the country which would cost up to Rs. 164 crores to allow the Right of passage for the pachyderm
Coimbatore : While habitat fragmentation is haunting the remaining Asian elephant population in the country at a larger scale forcing the pachyderm to often come into conflict with humans, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in partnership with a few organisations is working at different levels to secure the unsecured elephant corridors in India, of which only 12.9 per cent fall under forest cover.
The 101 elephant corridors are spread across the 12 States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
In the last 12 years, the organisation has been able to successfully secure five of these corridors in the States of Meghalaya, Karnataka and Kerala. The securing of the sixth corridor is near completion and six more corridors have been taken up by the organisation in the States of Assam and Karnataka.
WTI is carrying out the work along with partnership from Asian Elephant Alliance members including Elephant Family, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), International Union for the Conservation of Nature Netherlands and World Land Trust. The flagship elephant conservation body of the Central Government, Project Elephant, is also involved.
“The initial survey was made in 2005 when 88 elephant corridors were identified. The report was further updated in 2017, which fetched a total of 101 corridors with 20 new corridors. Seven corridors in the States of Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh that were listed in the previous study were impaired,” said K. Ramkumar, Manager and Project Head of Elephant Corridor Securement Projects, South India.
He further added that the team conducts a survey every five years in all the elephant states to study the existing corridors and also identify new corridors.
“Once a corridor is identified, we use four strategies including Private Purchase Model, Community Securement Model, Government Acquisition Model and Public Securement Model based on the area. If any relocation is done, the translocated people are taken care of until they are completely settled. We also make sure they receive all the necessary basic requirements and Government schemes in their new area,” he told the Simplicity.
He further added that they would conduct State Elephant Corridor Consultative Workshop in all the 12 elephant states and also make individual presentations with officials to finalise a corridor.
Explaining about the difficulties involved in securing a corridor, Ramkumar said that liaisoning with the local communities would be one of the toughest tasks as some forests like those in Meghalaya, belong to the tribes. “These people follow the Jhum Cultivation method, where they shift the plot from one area to the other destroying trees. In such areas, we convert the area into village reserves, which would be under their control but they cannot cut any tree or make constructions,” explained Ramkumar.
Corridors in Tamil Nadu show positive signs
Hosting 16 identified elephant corridors, which is the highest in all of India, Tamil Nadu along with other South Indian States of Karnataka and Kerala has a good chance of securing corridors as the habitat is better in comparison to other parts of the country.
“Though narrow in some passages, the forests here are very well connected with strips of forest patches and green cover. More than 35 per cent of the corridors fall under forest cover. Of the 16, three corridors are Interstate corridors having connections with the neighbouring State of Karnataka,” Ramkumar informed.