Human-elephant conflict: finding a peaceful coexistence

Walking through the lines (a row of houses for workers) of tea estates, there was an eerie silence. You could look at the ground and tell that a herd of elephants had passed through those narrow lanes. I saw some rubble, which was once the wall of a ration shop and some house walls knocked down.

These are not uncommon scenes in several parts of southern India, eastern states such as Odisha and West Bengal, north-eastern states such as Assam, Meghalaya, and the Terai region of Uttarakhand and UP. Lives are at risk here, 3,310 humans have died from 2014 to 2021, while 494 elephants have died because of some negative interaction with humans and its establishments between 2017-18 to 2021-22.

In the last 10 years, Odisha alone has seen 935 elephant deaths. Elephants are dying in our fields, railway tracks due to poisoning, and poaching. This happens as human development has either cut, wiped out, or fragmented traditional elephant migration routes and habitats.

As per the 2017 estimate, there are an estimated 29,964 elephants in the wild in India, and they need space. As they move through the human-dominated areas, there is a dire need to find effective solutions for interactions with humans to reduce, and the negative outcome to be zero. This is an ask of elephantine magnitude. There are several attempts made to reduce this conflict, some have yielded fabulous results, while others are still struggling. So, there is hope but a long way to ensure that elephants, people, and property are safe and thriving.

It is well known that elephants are being killed for their ivory and that was a big threat to them, this has to be updated now. Elephants are now under stress from several other factors which significantly outweigh poaching. There is no data on the natural death of elephants, and many experts believe that a large number of elephants are dying because of stress, miscarriages, and starvation.

We have taken over their native habitats, many forests are fragmented and degraded to the point of very little food to sustain them, which makes these elephants stray into human habitats. Their sheer size and power lead to a lot of destruction of the property in their path, which at times translates to anger among villages, and lives on both sides are lost.

Many organisations are working relentlessly over the decades to resolve these issues. Some have set up alarm systems, while some have taken up restoration of the elephant corridors. Numerous awareness and education campaigns are run in high elephant-density areas. Have these interventions worked? It’s a mixed bag with most having little impact.

The biggest success is the Nature Conservation Foundation’s long-term project in Valparai, which is supported by The Habitats Trust. They have created an alert system where locals who have registered receive an alert on their phone if wild elephant(s) are in their locality, along with this number community outreach programs have been conducted. All these years of effort have resulted in zero human and elephant deaths in that landscape. However, the exact same solution might not work in other areas because of different ground situations.

While the villagers and local organisations have tried chilies, bees, and electric fences to deter the elephants; the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) meanwhile, has compiled the best practices of human-elephant conflict management for India.

The document suggests that several initiatives can be taken, such as the management of water holes, creation of fodder, grassland management, management of fires, making elephant-proof trenches, fencing, voluntary relocation, etc. Also, in October 2017 MoEF&CC came up with guidelines, which are also on similar lines.

You will find many of these guidelines implemented in parts. When a potential conflict situation arises, the most common response seems to be creating loud noises using crackers, drums, and even beating thalis; fires are lit and many times, thrown at the elephants. All this is done to shoo them away. Research shows that this puts the elephants under a lot of stress and the result is not good for either. Stressed elephants in such situations apparently do more damage to property and life compared to elephants who are left alone.

India is home to about 60% of the world’s wild Asian elephant population. But the people who are at the receiving end of having them and the largest land mammal itself, both seem to go unnoticed. Many of these people are marginalised and cannot afford such losses. While the elephants are just being elephants trying to find food and move through their ancestral lands. Elephants are architects, by virtue of their vegetarian diet they disperse seeds that germinate in their poop making them the gardeners of the forests.

But if they are restricted to small patches of forests they will eat away the forests too. They need large areas and often move across many states. If we can give them the space and a safe passage they will create forests for themselves and us. For this, we will have to have policies that support, keeping our forests large and intact, and making elephant-friendly crossings on roads, railways, and other linear infrastructure.

We have to ensure the safety of people in a non-aggressive way. We should provide them with compensation and those who wish to move out, provide them that opportunity. Create alert systems, well-trained and equipped rapid response forces within the forest department. If we can do this the problems will reduce significantly and both the people and the elephants will have a fighting chance to resurrect. These pachyderms cannot just be in our stories and mythology, they also need to be visible in our actions to protect them.