They came as any other visitor from across the border, but instead of going back they decided to make India their new home. It is the story of wild herds of more than 100 elephants from the Royal Bardia National Park in Nepal, who are residents of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) in Uttar Pradesh since the past one year.
Similar is the story of wild rhinos numbering from three to five. Interestingly, the two regions of Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary and Dudhwa National Park that houses the Nepalese visitors in DTR, are not connected to each other on the Indian soil, but through Royal Bardia National Park in Nepal.
According to VK Singh, Deputy Field Director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, a herd of 72-78 elephants from Nepal has settled in Dudhwa. The population is healthy and breeding. They also have eight young elephants between the age of one year to six years.Ashish Tiwary, DFO, Katerniaghat Wildlife Division confirmed a similar story about a group of 40-45 elephants from Bardia in Nepal and 3-5 rhinos .
The prolific corridors of Basanta to Dudhwa National Park and Khata connecting Bardia to Katerniaghat are largely making the migration possible. The experts felt that this was a positive trend in enriching genetic diversity of wildlife and checking the problems of inbreeding amongst the species.
According to Singh, earlier too the herds had migrated from Nepal but they would leave within a month or so, via the same path to its home country. The choice of Indian forests by the Nepalese elephants is largely due to grassland and water hole management besides effective protection.
“Special tractors are deployed to uproot old grasslands, following the new grass sprouts from the surface,” said Singh. The elephants relish on the soft new grass. Further, the sugarcane fields in the nearby villages also add up to their food. Further, there is also uninterrupted space for their movement and Gerua River is a perennial source of water.
Protection measures have also been stepped up. It has been observed that Nepalese women enter the park on the pretext of killing fish. Hence, the park management has recently deployed a brigade of 24 women security forces from Prantiya Raksha Dal (a State security agency) to counter such threats, he said.
However, while Nepalese elephants may be adding to our wildlife wealth but it has also developed a new challenge. According to Tiwary, at least 18-20 villages bordering Katerniaghat Wildlife sanctuary are hit by crop raids and resulting man-elephant conflicts. Anti-Depredation squads have been set up as mitigative measures.
Regular watchers have been deployed to track the movement of the herds and crackers are being distributed in the villages to ward off elephants, said Tiwary. It is easier to drive them out in the evening, when they are beginning to enter the fields, rather than at night when they are already in the fields.