Integrated approach to human-elephant conflict

When paddy fields turn yellow, it is the colour code for farmers to reap the harvest and fill their granaries. In hotspots of Human- Elephant Conflict (HEC), herds of elephants coming out of forests and feasting on mature paddy before the farmers could harvest has become a common sight in Assam. Recurring losses suffered by poor and marginal farmers push them into a vicious cycle of poverty. As drivers of HEC, such as degradation of forests and fragmentation of elephant corridors, are left unaddressed, the intensity of HEC increases and also leads to the creation of new hotspots of conflict. In the absence of effective mitigation measures, HEC claims about 500 human and 100 elephant lives, on average, every year in India. The erection of solar-powered fences has helped reduce negative interaction between humans and elephants and protected people and their houses in several affected areas. Despite being proven to be an effective measure, the solution has not been applied to all affected areas in the state because of a lack of adequate data on elephant movement. Some unscrupulous people connect wired fences to electric lines with hooks to protect their houses from elephant depredation. Several elephants were reported to have been killed due to electrocution as a result of such an illegal protection measure. The Forest Department and wildlife NGOs reaching out to people in those areas with the help of local administration and initiating the erection of solar-powered fences can bring about a change in the prevailing situation. The “Guidelines for Human Elephant Conflict Management-Taking a Harmonious-Coexistence Approach,” published by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, underscores the need for a landscape approach while formulating measures for mitigating HEC to ensure sustainable solutions. It has flagged the challenge that “unless comprehensive and integrated HEC mitigation measures are implemented across the landscape, the problem is likely to only shift from one place to another.” Balancing the approach and aspiration of people for accelerated development is a tricky puzzle for policymakers. Construction of roads, expansion of highways, and railway lines leads to diversion of forest and fragmentation of elephant habitat and elephant corridors. Such hard realities imply that mitigation of HEC is not possible in isolation and requires to be synergised with land use plan for development activities undertaken along the periphery of elephant habitats and elephant corridors. The Ministry document highlights that HEC mitigation so far has largely focused on the use of barriers, short-distance drives, and ex gratia payments or compensation for loss and damages. "While these efforts have helped contain HEC, the problem continues to grow as a holistic approach has not been incorporated into the mitigation effort," it adds, pointing towards a wide policy gap in HEC mitigation efforts. It has identified the general drivers of HEC to be human population increase, changing lifestyle and economic aspirations, reduced appreciation of wildlife, climate change, disasters, land use change, policies in linear infrastructure, mining, urban development, habitat fragmentation, loss, and degradation, including the local overabundance of elephants. Another critical challenge faced in HEC mitigation highlighted in the document is that the current land use and land cover and inherited land use changes have caused elephant habitats to become habitat islands of various sizes within a sea of human-use areas, thus creating areas where elephants and humans compete for space and resources inside elephant reserves. The Guidelines recommend that habitat restoration requires that the driver of habitat degradation be first addressed so that the process of degradation does not continue. It envisages that state forest departments should prioritise restoration in and around vulnerable areas and HWC hotspots. In highly degraded habitats, the process of regeneration may be accelerated by interventions such as gap planting with native species, controlling soil erosion, groundwater recharge, restoring grasslands and tree cover, etc. Participation of fringe dwellers in forest areas and HEC hotspots in the consultation process for reviewing and adopting mitigation measures is crucial. The people living in HEC-affected areas play a crucial role in monitoring the movement of wild elephant herds and how they respond to some of the community initiatives for mitigation of the conflict. Feedback, observation, and a local approach to mitigating conflict can help articulate sustainable mitigation measures when scientifically studied. The traditional knowledge of people living in peripheries of forests sustaining elephant populations is a great resource for scientific research and hence needs to be documented for their incorporation while devising strategies for HEC mitigation by experts. Providing solar street light in affected villages not connected to the electricity grid can be useful, as lighting helps people monitor elephant movement at night. As HEC conflict areas have widened in the state, more support by the government for undertaking research and adopting mitigation measures is of paramount importance. A multi-pronged approach combining research, livelihood support, compensation to affected people, habitat restoration, and barriers to protect houses is the need of the hour.