Elephant corridors are increasingly human dominated, resulting in high levels of human-wildlife conflict. Comment

Model Answer

Elephant corridors are narrow strips of land that connect two large habitats.  They are linear, narrow, natural habitat passages that allow elephants to move between secure habitats without being disturbed by humans. In many cases, these corridors are already under the control of a government agency and could include unutilized spaces in large commercial estates, and fallow or agricultural lands.

• The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), constituted under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (amendment 2006), defines wildlife corridors as “inherent geographical linkages (through forests, river courses or other habitat attributes) which facilitate movement of tigers and other wild animals from one source area to another.”
• The report (Wildlife Trust of India’s 2017 report, Right of Passage) has the officially accepted list of 108 identified elephant corridors in the country. “Seven corridors that were previously identified, were found to have been impaired in the last decade,” the report has said.  
• Of the 108 corridors, 14 are in Jharkhand and none of them have been notified so far.
• Right to Passagewas, however, approved by the forest department of Jharkhand, along with those of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. 

What is the need of elephant corridor?

• Despite being a figure of traditional cultural reverence, recognised indeed as the National Heritage Animal, and given the strictest level of protection under the law, the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is in a lot of trouble in India today. The crux of the problem is one that affects all wildlife in the country: land.
• Land degradation: As India’s human population has grown exponentially in the past several decades, so has its demand for resources. At its essence, that demand boils down to the requirement for more land – for agriculture to grow more food, for roads, for dams and mines and railways and housing. This demand for land has led to the degradation and fragmentation of the country’s forest cover.
• Elephant needs vast areas to roam: browsing, foraging, moving from place to place in search of food and water with the changing seasons.
• The more forest habitat is degraded, the farther an elephant herd has to roam in search of food and water.
• As elephants are forced to range farther and farther afield, this brings them into conflict with humans.
• And as humans encroach on forest areas, planting nutritious crops near forest lands, building homes and roads and railways, this invites conflict with elephants.
• Human Elephant Conflictis a very serious issue in India today: over 400 humans are killed in encounters with elephants annually, and crops and property worth millions of rupees are damaged.

Challenges:

• Despite being a figure of traditional cultural reverence, recognised indeed as the National Heritage Animal, and given the strictest level of protection under the law, the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is in a lot of trouble in India today.
• Land issue: The crux of the problem is one that affects all wildlife in the country: land. Although forest cover in India has increased, crucial wildlife corridors are shrinking leading to both human and animal deaths.
• Human-animal conflicts: Human-animal conflicts aren’t new and these intensified when large tracts of forest lands started getting cleared for agricultural purposes. Unplanned and unchecked exploitation of land and water place significant strain on the resources concurrently used by wild animals
  • In 2018, the 15th Steering Committee of Project Elephant asked elephant range states to either notify elephant corridors as ESZs under the EPA, or as Community Reserve or Conservation Reserve under the WLPA. 
  • These areas are increasingly human dominated, resulting in high levels of human-wildlife conflict (destruction of crops, buildings and even human life).
• Mining: Mining in the traditional elephant habitats has forced the animals out of their territory and led to many deaths.
• Climate change: The issue is further complicated by climate change, which has increased the droughts and floods in the country. Many animals are forced to move far away in search of water because of the reducing number of rainy days in a season, which leads to drying up of small ponds and streams.

Why Elephants are crucial for humans?

• Elephants are a keystone species. Their nomadic behaviour – the daily and seasonal migrations they make through their home ranges – is immensely important to the environment.
• Landscape architects:Elephants create clearings in the forest as they move about, preventing the overgrowth of certain plant species and allowing space for the regeneration of others, which in turn provide sustenance to other herbivorous animals.
• Seed dispersal:Elephants eat plants, fruits and seeds, releasing the seeds when they defecate in other places as they travel. This allows for the distribution of various plant species, which benefits biodiversity.
• Nutrition:Elephant dung provides nourishment to plants and animals and acts as a breeding ground for insects.
• Water providers:In times of drought they access water by digging holes, which benefits other wildlife. Further, their large footprints collect water when it rains, benefitting smaller creatures.
• Food chain: Apex predators like tigers will sometimes hunt young elephants. Further, elephant carcasses provide food for other animals.
• The umbrella effect:By preserving a large area for elephants to roam freely, one provides a suitable habitat for many other animal and plant species of an ecosystem.

Suggestive measures:

• Securing the corridors involves sensitising local communities to the option of voluntarily relocating outside the conflict zones to safer areas, with their own land and improved housing.
• It would also have great conservation value, preventing further fragmentation of the continuous forest habitat by encroachment from urban areas, as well as providing continued refuge for animals
• Human-animal conflict should be reconfigured as interactions between humans and wild animals. The lens should not merely be on human needs, but also animal behaviour and requirements. 
• A new dynamic wildlife management is needed instead of simple conservation.

Conclusion:

To have elephants in isolated populations, unable to move freely through their home ranges, would therefore have a devastating effect on India’s natural heritage. Many animal species would suffer and the ecosystem balance of several wild habitats would be unalterably upset. It would also, of course, eventually lead to the local extinction of India’s National Heritage Animal, one of the wisest and most beloved species on the planet.