Manual Review — ‘Monitoring Elephant Populations and Assessing Threats’ (edited by Simon Hedges)

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Monitoring Elephants the right way: A Synopsis of the Manual titled ‘Monitoring Elephant Populations and Assessing Threats’.

Elephants are social, group living mammals revered by people across diverse cultures in the world. Once widely distributed across a range of ecological conditions, currently distribution and abundance of elephants have both dwindled drastically throughout its range due to habitat loss, fragmentation and poaching. India holds the largest population of Asian elephants surviving today.

In spite of its conservation significance, elephant populations across … Read More

Palamu’s Killer Tracks

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One of the biggest threats to the wildlife of Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR), spread over an area of 1130 sq.kms in West-Central Jharkhand, has been the New Delhi-Ranchi Railway line that slices through the Tiger Reserve’s core ranges of East & West Chhipadohar over a distance of 8 kms. About 70 trains — both passenger and freight — ply on this busy rail route everyday (these lines have been in existence before Palamu’s notification as a Tiger Reserve in 1973). … Read More

Elephant Taunting – A Despicable Spectator Sport in Coimbatore Forests

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Editor’s note: This report exposes a serious problem that needs urgent resolution. CI requests journalists to highlight this issue so that the authorities put strong measures in place to stop it. We request all conservationists and conservation NGOs in Coimbatore to join hands to help the Forest Department in solving this problem urgently.

Coimbatore, often referred to as the Manchester of South India, harbours hundreds of factories and multinational companies, which need land and other resources. Despite this, the … Read More

Tourists Gone Wild

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This was photographed in November 2010 in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve of Karnataka. It is evident that the mother elephant is completely agitated and trying to protect her calf. In spite of the efforts of the forest department in educating tourists and operators about maintaining a distance of at least 200m from wild animals, many violate these rules and approach animals closely, and provoke them at close range, seeking dangerous thrills. … Read More

Survival

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In July 2012, I was witness to a story of survival in the wild, and how, despite the best attempts of humans, nature has its way. I was in Valparai and we got news that an elephant herd that we were tracking had given birth to a calf. The mother was a young elephant and an older one was observed always staying by her side. A few days later, while I was at Bangalore, I heard the startling news that … Read More

From Wild To Captivity: An Orphaned Elephant Calf

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This four-year old elephant calf was found in the Malapuzha forest range of Palakkad, Kerala, dehydrated, tired and not eating anything. Thanks to the efforts of forest department staff and doctors, this tired little one was brought back to life. Unfortunately, the calf refused to go back into the forest. So the forest department had to take him to a rescue center. Even though the life of an elephant was saved, it was painful to see the transformation of a … Read More

Elephants Attempting to Cross Elephant Proof Trench

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This was photographed in the Chikkadevama hill, near Saragur, H D Kote Taluk, near Mysore. Here elephants are trying to cross an Elephant Proof Trench (EPT), so that they can raid adjacent crop fields. With most of their habitat deforested, and their corridors interrupted by human encroachments, it is no wonder that they are forced to raid crops.… Read More

Living with Elephants

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This was photographed in the Chikkadevama Hill, near Saragur, H D Kote taluk, Mysore. Adjoining this hill, there is a village called Lanke, where conflicts with elephants are frequent. During the crop season, many elephants cross the scrub jungle late in the evening and return back to forest in the early morning hours. This photograph clearly shows a villager trying to drive a group of elephants back to the jungle.

When one talks to the forest department people here, one … Read More

Lone Elephant in Degrading Landscape

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This was photographed in the Nugu Backwaters, near Saragur, H D Kotte, Mysore. Cattle Grazing and collecting timber for  firewood look like the major problems here. Once livestock return to their thatched huts, elephants start to come out of the forests late in the evening, heading towards water. They returns back to woods after finishing a quick drink. Landscape such as this slowly degrades over time due to the human land use modifications.… Read More

Resort Vehicles and Responsibility

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I witnessed this at Kabini in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, where a canter van belonging to Jungle Lodges and Resorts was stopped extremely close to a wild tusker. When we approached the scene, the van was parked on the safari track with the tusker close to it on the left. The tusker then moved slightly towards the van (may be a metre or so) and then stopped, but the van remained in its position. Only when there were signs of a … Read More

Q: We live in a small village, Thekambattu, near Salem in Tamil Nadu. Recently we had elephants near us for the first time in living memory of the oldest inhabitants here. We are glad to see your site because it is perhaps what would have helped us at that time. Anyway, the elephants seem to be wandering; so perhaps this is not the last we see of them. We need to know what can be done here as and when they show up without any resources, trained manpower etc. There has to be something like an Elephant Rescue team on call in the country at different places, I guess…

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Answer from Shekar Dattatri, Conservation India:

The problem you describe in your question – and in more much more detail in your blog – is an extremely difficult one to tackle. Although you yourself seem to have analyzed the various dimensions to this dilemma, and may not find this answer very useful, we are posting it here for the benefit of other readers, but with this rider. No one from CI has been to the area or studied the … Read More

Three Elephants Killed By Poachers In Simlipal

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Three elephants have been killed by poachers in Simlipal Tiger Reserve, Orissa. The pair of tusks missing from one of the elephants pointed to the fact that this is the work of ivory traders. It appears that the elephants had been poisoned. Conservationists have expressed concerns over poachers being active in Simlipal again. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has also expressed concern over mass killings of elephants. Last year, about 10 elephants were killed in Simlipal. … Read More