Are the numerous measures taken to address man-elephant conflict in the State working? The question becomes relevant as pachyderms are back again in Palakkad’s paddy fields.

A week ago, two tuskers frolicked in the waters of the Bharathapuzha near the town of Parali. It was almost a year ago that they made news when they visited the rail ticket reservation counter in Palakkad town. And, two months later, three tuskers ventured further south, into a human-dominated mosaic of paddy fields and villages. They walked through coconut orchards and waded through rivers, watched by an amused public, until they were driven back to nearby forested areas by harried Forest Department officials using crackers and kumkis (captive trained elephants).

While these pachyderms may only have been passing through, several villages in the area now witness frequent crop raids by elephants. Crop losses in paddy fields, plantain farms and coconut groves are not uncommon any more. Short-term mitigation measures — from deep trenches to electrified fences — are some of the most commonly-used methods to prevent elephants from entering crop lands and human habitation. But are they effective?

Fences and walls

Last year, Kerala initiated a five-year conflict mitigation programme costing ₹100 crore, as part of which village lands adjoining protected areas where conflict is high — such as northern Wayanad, Punalur and Thenmala in Kollam and Nenmara in Palakkad — are currently being fenced off using physical barriers — from elephant-proof walls to electric or railway fences. Electric (usually solar powered) fences are one of the most-commonly-used mitigation methods in Kerala.

“But the elephants know exactly what to do,” said Manikandan K., a daily wage worker near Dhoni in Palakkad. “They push down an entire tree on it and cross over to the area. The portions of the fence that still stand here are dysfunctional.”

Residents in villages surrounding the Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary (TBS) in Ernakulam too claim that solar fences are not effective. However, fences will work if they are maintained well; vegetation both under and on either side of solar fences needs to be cut down regularly so that the fences do not short-circuit, said Money S., Assistant Wildlife Warden at the TBS.

“We have a dedicated team for maintenance. But the effort is high and the team can cover only limited areas in a given time,” he said.

Maintenance crucial

It is crucial that locals also contribute to the regular maintenance of fences, suggest researchers who recently studied the effectiveness of mitigation measures in Nilambur. Monitoring several types of mitigation measures, they found that well-maintained electric fences were far more effective than elephant-proof stone walls and trenches used in combination with electric fences (people and cattle cross trenches at some points, flattening the surrounding soil which lets elephants enter too). Innovative honeybee boxes mounted on wire fences (which has helped deter elephants in Africa) are used in some parts of Thrissur. Though farmers claim that it does deter elephants, they agree that many are not functional in some regions where the bee colonies and their boxes are not maintained well.

“In Sri Lanka, appointing existing village committees to maintain fences has paid off,” says researcher Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan of Bengaluru's National Institute for Advanced Studies, who studies elephants in the Western Ghats. “Elephants rarely enter fields there because of well-maintained fences. However, we need to see how this method can be used in Kerala where the social make- up of villages is different.”

Most times, well-maintained electric fences can easily prevent elephant entry into cultivated lands; and installing them around agricultural areas that require protection alone — instead of forest boundaries as is usually done — could help in easing installation and maintenance, he adds.

However, the blind use of barrier-type mitigation measures, such as the widely-used solar fences and the immensely expensive railway fences, is not good for elephants, wrote Divya Vasudev, scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS-India) in an e-mail. Analysing scientific studies that documented human-elephant conflict mitigation, Vasudev and her colleague found that more than half the sites that experience conflict in Asia are also crucial for habitat connectivity and help elephants move across the landscape. Using barrier-based mitigation strategies that completely prevent elephant movement in such areas ‘would be counterproductive for elephant (or wildlife) conservation, and hence should be used with great caution,’ warn scientists.

An expert committee recently constituted by the Kerala Forest Department and headed by scientist P.S. Easa came to the same crucial conclusion. They have recommended creating a master plan for managing conflict in the State before implementing the Forest Department’s barrier project which can affect elephant movement, says A.K. Dharni, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Vigilance) of the Kerala Forest Department. The project has been put on hold for now after completion of construction work costing ₹15 crore, he added.

The larger picture

So should people just resign themselves to conflict — that can range from financial losses caused by damaged crops to personal ones like seeing the death of loved ones — all their lives? This is where some out-of-the-box solutions have proved particularly useful. An early warning system — where forest officials and NGOs monitor elephant movement daily and send SMS messages to people warning them of elephants near their villages — has helped reduce human-elephant conflict drastically in Tamil Nadu’s Valparai; humans deaths have been reduced from three to just one person a year now. The early warning system, along with alert mobile rapid response teams, has also helped reduce property damages (such as elephant raids on buildings where food is stocked). So, would such a well-maintained early warning system work well in many other places which are experiencing human-elephant conflict in Kerala too?

Early warning system

“There are no ready-made solutions,” said scientist Ananda Kumar M., of the NCF, who has been instrumental in implementing Valparai's early warning system. “All solutions are situation-specific. Instead of labelling individuals as ‘problem’ animals, we have to see if there are issues in the landscape. Most areas are seeing land-use changes such as habitat conversion and mining,” he points out.

In such situations, long-term solutions — such as creating corridors that link fragmented habitats to ensure safe elephant passage — assume significance. In many States, Forest Departments are now working towards acquiring land that can be converted into elephant corridors in future. “This is something we are considering in Kerala too, but it is a long process and will take time,” says Dharni.