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Human-Elephant Conflict Study
Context:
A recent paper highlights new insights into human-elephant conflict (HEC) and its impact on farmers in north Chhattisgarh.
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- The study, conducted by Lakshminarayanan Natarajan, Parag Nigam, and Bivash Pandav from the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, suggests that elephant expansion into human-dominated areas with patchy forest cover may function as an ‘ecological trap’, negatively impacting elephant conservation.
- Researchers recommend discouraging such expansion and increasing elephant occupancy in larger and connected forest patches to reduce crop losses.
Study Methodology and Findings
- Examined 10 forest divisions in Surguja and Bilaspur Forest Circles across a 39,000 sq km forest-agriculture mosaic.
- Included four protected areas:
- Guru Ghasidas National Park (1,411 sq km)
- Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary (543 sq km)
- Semarsot Wildlife Sanctuary (430 sq km)
- Badhalkol Wildlife Sanctuary (104 sq km)
- Fine-Scale Study (2019-2020): Conducted in a 1,200 sq km conflict hotspot at the intersection of Surguja, Surajpur, and Balrampur Forest Divisions.
- 363 crop-foraging incidents were recorded in 60 villages.
- Total crop loss: 12.4 hectares (ha), affecting multiple crops
- Sugarcane: 5.81 ha, 214 crop-loss days (most affected)
- Rice: 3.50 ha, 64 crop-loss days
- Maize: 1.73 ha, 23 crop-loss days
- Wheat: 0.68 ha, 42 crop-loss days
- Minimal losses for other crops like tomatoes, mustard, and pulses.
- Crop losses were highest in areas with intensive elephant habitat use.
Elephant Population in Chhattisgarh
- Historical presence: Elephants were locally extinct in Chhattisgarh by the 1920s, but returned from 1988 onwards.
- Current population: 250-300 elephants form a ‘metapopulation’ that has expanded from Odisha and Jharkhand due to passive dispersal (driven by habitat saturation, not evolutionary factors like natal dispersal).
- Home ranges in Chhattisgarh are larger than in other parts of Asia due to fragmented forests interspersed with human settlements.
- Increasing human-elephant interactions in the state are attributed to exploratory dispersal in search of resources.
- Despite being a forest-rich state, effective conflict mitigation strategies are needed for long-term elephant conservation.
Human-Elephant Conflict and Its Impact
- India harbours over 60% of the global Asian elephant population (~50,000 individuals).
- Negative human-elephant interactions lead to:
- >500 human deaths annually
- Hundreds of injuries
- >11 million hectares of crop damage
- As 61% of the rural population depends on agriculture, crop losses pose a severe livelihood threat.
- Elephants forage on crops to compensate for habitat loss and nutritional deficiencies.
- Bull elephants may use crop foraging as a strategy for reproductive advantage (better expression of musth).
- Elephants prefer to feed at night to avoid confrontation with humans.
Implications and Recommendations
- Elephants in fragmented habitats forage more on crops, leading to higher conflict incidents than in intact forests.
- Surface water augmentation in small forest patches should be approached cautiously, as it may create daytime refuges for elephants and increase conflict.
- Switching to alternative crops is not a viable solution due to:
- Economic and political constraints on farmers’ crop choices.
- Elephants’ high mobility and generalist diet, which could shift conflict to new areas.
- Key recommendations for conflict mitigation:
- Institutionalising elephant monitoring programs.
- Ensuring transparent and prompt ex gratia payments for crop losses.
- Using portable physical barriers to prevent elephant incursions.
- Focusing conservation efforts on securing large and connected forest patches to reduce human-elephant interactions.
