As Kerala is fast slipping into the grip of an intense drought which, according to scientists, could turn out to be the most severe in more than 100 years. Dried-up brooks, parched soil and vanishing fodder clusters have started forced wild animals like elephants, bison and boars to stray out of the forests in search of water in human habitats.
The phenomenon has intensified fears of the possibility of a rise in cases of human-animal conflict. Several cases of attacks on humans and intrusions into farms by wild animals have been reported from such areas in the past few days and environmentalists are warning that the rising heat and resultant water and fodder shortage might lead to the death of a large number of animals.
The frequent incursions by wild animals into human habitats in search of water due to the lack of it for drinking and body-cooling in the jungles are causing huge problems for the people living on forest verges in the form of crop loss and threat to life. Forest officials say that the threat of forest fires, a common phenomenon during months of severe drought, is also cause of anxiety.
The alarming drought situation prevailing in the Kerala forests were first reported in this season by the Adivasis of the Peringammala and Nandiyode Grama Panchayats in southern Kerala who used to go into the forest for collecting firewood, and fruits and tubers.
Drying up of undergrowth and extreme parching of rivulets and brooks were also reported from the jungles of Arippa, Kannimar and Adipparambu of Kulathoopuzha Forest range and Vattikkavu, Kattilakkuzhi and Kombirankallu in the Palode range in Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts in southern Kerala.
Reports of similar situations have also come from the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Kerala, lying contiguous to the Bandipur National Park in Karnataka and Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu. Wayanad is among the Kerala districts that suffered the worst rainfall deficits in both the southwestern and northeastern monsoons last year.
Sources in the Kerala Water Resources Department said that the drought being experienced in the State currently was perhaps only the beginning of a “catastrophe”. The State had suffered a 34-percent shortfall in the June-September southwestern monsoon while the shower deficit in the October-December northeastern monsoon was 62 percent.
With more than four and a half months remaining for the start of the next monsoon season, Kerala is sure to witness a drought of disastrous dimensions if good summer rains do not occur. Forest Department officials said that good rains in February, March and April were essential for the survival of wildlife through summer.
“We are facing a twin problem of animal migration. The jungles of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve have already dried up and the situation is worse in the Wayanad sanctuary. Animals from Bandipur have started start migrating to Wayanad in search of water while those here are already reeling under the drought,” said a Forest officer of the Wayanad sanctuary.
The official said that the disappearance of large portions of bamboo clusters, which form a protective wall from warm winds for the flora and fauna in the Wayanad sanctuary and a big source of fodder for animals, have led to destabilization of the ecosystem in the sanctuary. “This is posing a big threat to the wildlife,” he said.
A farmer in Ambalavayal, Wayanad said he had suffered crop losses amounting to Rs 100,000 in “raids by wild elephants” in his farmland. “In one nightly attack alone, a seven-elephant herd destroyed at least a hundred plantains, several areca nut trees and rubber saplings and vegetables,” he said, adding that such incursions would increase as the summer advanced.
What is making the situation further alarming as far as wildlife is concerned is that the districts with extensive forest cover have experienced the worst rainfall deficit, especially in the NE monsoon. “Good rainfall in the second monsoon is crucial for keeping the jungle wet in the summer months and that is exactly what the State did not get this time,” said the Forest official.