- I have observed from reports in India that more Human Elephant conflict is there in Central and Eastern India compared to Southern India. This raises a question why it is so? one strong reason comes to my mind is due to wrong forest management practices and regeneration approach? We find that elephants are in good density in Central and Eastern India in Sal(Shorea robusta) dominated forest habitats. So, why elephants are out to village lands from the forest in these areas? This is a matter of intensive research. One hypothesis is that the concerned department has done exotic species plantation in these forests on periphery, may be upto 500m to 1 km inside forest depending upon the scheme made by them, therefore the seedlings of local species in the periphery could not compete and these areas are left without fodder and food species of elephants. Regeneration is badly affected. in addition to exotics, at some places one finds Teak(Tectona grandis) plantation in Sal dominated peripheral forest areas also. All these species have good content of aromatic chemicals in stem,leaf,fruits and flowers(may be roots also). So, an elephant coming to this area in periphery gets agitated and disoriented first due to absence of food and then due to smell of aromatic compounds, which makes the animal to come out of these areas and the light of outside forest guides them to enter into villages. Here begins the conflict.
Joshua Plotnik, a comparative psychologist at Hunter College, City University of New York, decided to see whether six captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) could use odors alone to make quantitative judgments. Josua Plotnik says and I quote,"Understanding the sensory skill, could help preserve a species in decline. Fewer than 40,000 Asian elephants remain in the wild—and “we’re running out of time to save them”. “They’re remarkably intelligent animals we still know very little about.”
I would love to interact on this subject, and research input/suggestions given here may become a tool in hands of animal managers and researchers to save this species.
The objective of elephants coming out of the forests and visiting nearby villages is to be understood first. Next is there any Elephant corridor for movement of elephants. Generally during summer elephants come out of forests for water and some times for food also. Even mosquitoes bother them.
In some places, chilies are planted on the borders of farms. At other places, bee keeping is done for the same purpose of keeping the elephants away. Then again, there are other ways also. This could be agitating the elephants instead of warding them off. So, perhaps, they kind of retaliate.
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