With rising incidents of man-elephant conflicts in the country, the Environment Ministry has constituted an expert panel to study the pattern of elephant dispersal and migration, review elephant corridors, consider zonation of elephant corridors and its parameters and management principles. According to official figures nearly 400 persons get killed annually in elephant attacks while costing the life of 100 jumbos.
The committee comprises retired forest officials, scientists from Wildlife Institute of India, members from WWF amongst others. Prominent in this panel is elephant expert and member National Board For Wildlife R Sukumar. The committee has been given two years to study the issues and submit a report.
The sources said that important mandates are to suggest steps to check man-elephant conflicts and recommend techniques for translocation of “waylaid” elephants. The special group will also examine the existing legal provisions under various wildlife and environmental laws, for protection and management of existing and potential elephant reserves and elephant corridors in the country. It will also recommend ways to strengthen the existing legal provisions. The country presently has 26 elephant reserves covering about 60,000 sqkms.
The group will also examine the issue of isolated pockets of elephant populations and suggest measures to deal with man-elephant conflict in those areas while considering the conservation of elephants.
The group has been further asked to examine the status and needs of rehabilitation centres across India and issues related to captive elephants. The sources from the Ministry said that maximum part of the budget of Project Elephant (about Rs200 crores) from 2012-17 goes towards paying compensation to the victims, towards losses caused by elephants in human habitations or crop fields, according to the Environment Ministry. Considering the losses of human life and assets across the country, it is time that man elephant conflicts should be checked.
Earlier this year, the Environment Ministry had advised State Governments to use beehive fences and chilli fences to deter elephants from entering their fields. According to experts, man-elephant conflict has been increasing mainly due to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation reducing the habitat areas of the jumbos. They said that one of the major task of the committee would be to strengthen the legal provisions of elephant reserves and corridor. One of the major hurdles of elephant conservation is their lack of legal protection.
According to IUCN, India has the largest population of Asian elephants. Out of a range of about 41,000-52,000, 29,300-30,700 elephants are in India alone. The elephant was declared National Heritage Animal in 2010.