There is nothing spectacular in germination of seeds into saplings in dense forests, but ‘germination’ of bamboo has brought cheers to the forest-side residents of the Athgarh Forest Division in Cuttack district, one of the epicentres of man-elephant confrontation in the State.
As bamboo shoots are the most-favoured food of jumbos, the germination has raised hopes of curbing elephants from raiding human habitations in search of food.
Officials of the Forest Department and people bearing the brunt of elephant depredation hope that growing bamboo will be a game-changer in confining elephants to forest limits.
Man-elephant conflict continues to pose trouble in the Athgarh Forest Division area from time to time. We are hopeful that bamboo cover in the forest will check the conflict to a great extent.
Bamboo shoots are relished by elephants. We are highly optimistic that it will meet the food requirement of wild elephants in their habitats and they will not stray out of the forest in search of food.
‘Dendro calamus’ bamboo or the Salia bamboo seed balls were prepared with community involvement and were dropped to restock salia bamboo to enrich elephant habitats in the 38 Reserve Forests of Athgarh Forest Division.
The experiment to increase bamboo cover is undertaken in July-August. These seeds germinate and the saplings grow up in four months. We expect the plants to fully grow in six to seven months’ time and provide shoots to elephants.
Prior to the implementation of bamboo experiment to arrest man-elephant confrontation, a massive awareness campaign had been set in motion in all the villages hit by elephant depredation for restoration of natural habitats of elephants.
One quintal of bamboo seeds which were brought from the Silviculture Division at Jashipur, Baripada will be thrown in the open patches inside the dense forests. Elephants love chewing bamboo shoots. Once the shoots come out of the plants, the animals’ interference into villages will definitely come down.
The Athagarh Forest Division is one of the worst-hit areas due to straying of elephants into villages. The elephants coming from the Chandaka Dampada Sanctuary raid villages at the Athagarh and Khuntuni Ranges to eat standing crops, causing damage to fruit-bearing trees and vegetable plants besides damaging human settlements. Humans also get killed as there are several instances of marauding elephants crushing them to death in past.
Last year, we threw around 950 kg of bamboo seeds in several locations of our division and inside our own departmental nurseries. We got positive results out of this. The survival percentage of this was around 50 per cent to 60 per cent. This year, we have decided to adopt it in a massive scale. We hope the bamboo seed ball plantation would be a solution to elephant-man conflict in a long term.
(The writer is Divisional Forest Officer, Athagarh)