Translocating Elephants: How It Affects The Conflict And Conservation Goals?

The Supreme Court this week dismissed the Kerala government¡¯s appeal against the order of the Kerala High Court directing that Arikomban, the ¡°rice tusker¡± of Munnar, be relocated to the Parambikulam tiger reserve.

The HC had on April 12 reiterated its earlier (April 5) order to relocate the animal, and given the state seven days to find a suitable forest corner away from human habitation for it ¡ª failing which it would have to go to Parambikulam.

On Wednesday, the HC directed the state to submit its suggestions for alternative sites in a sealed cover to the court-appointed expert committee that had recommended Arikomban¡¯s translocation.

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High Court Verdict

In its April 12 order, the HC had rejected apprehensions of local people about having the translocated elephant in their midst ¡ª over the years, Arikomban has been blamed for several human deaths ¡ª saying they had no right ¡°to decide on the nature of the animals that must be housed within the tiger reserve¡±.

The court found the apprehension that the elephant will pose a threat to the life and property of the villagers baseless, and said it was ¡°appalled by the total insensitivity demonstrated to the plight of the animal in question¡±.

The HC Also Stated

• ¡°There is every likelihood that the availability of plentiful natural food and water resources there would deter it from foraging in human settlements.
• ¡°The fact that the elephant will be radio-collared and its movements monitored by the forest/wildlife officials ought to have sufficed to allay the apprehensions of the petitioner, as the ¡®surprise¡¯ element of any conflict situation is effectively removed¡­
• ¡°There is no material before us, either in the form of scientific opinion or otherwise, that would suggest either that the elephant would almost inevitably behave in the manner suggested by the petitioner.¡±
  

The Island

Different Realities

Evidence does not seem to agree with these conclusions. Records suggest that the availability of ¡°natural food¡± is no guarantee that an elephant will not raid standing crops.

Using a radio collar round the clock drains its battery too soon. To avoid frequent immobilisation to refit collars, locations may at best be tracked every hour ¡ª enough time for a bull elephant to spring a few surprises within a radius of 5-10 km.

Radio-telemetry studies of translocated problem elephants suggest that shifting elephants also shift conflict.

One Outcome From Three Different Studies

1. India¡¯s first radio-telemetry study of a translocated problem elephant was conducted in 2006 on a large male shifted from the cropland of West Midnapore in South Bengal to the Mahananda Sanctuary in Darjeeling district in the North.

Almost immediately, the elephant started damaging houses and raiding crops in villages and Army areas. In the first five months after its release, the elephant demolished 17 houses and raided 46 plots of cropland. Translocation, the study concluded, does not seem to be a good option to reduce conflict as in this case, it only shifted the area of conflict. A better option would be to capture and transform it to a ¡®kunki¡¯ (a trained elephant used to capture wild ones).

2. Vinayaga, a bull that gained notoriety as a crop raider, was translocated from Coimbatore to the Mudumalai-Bandipur landscape in December 2018. It soon started using gaps in the elephant-proof trench to raid crops, until he was driven back.

A field report by WWF-India said: ¡°They say, ¡®old habits die hard¡¯, and rightly so because whenever he was driven away from the crop fields, he would retreat into the forest and stay close to the boundary waiting for an opportunity to go back again.¡± Constant manning of the boundary forced Vinayaga to explore forest areas, indicating ¡°that the animal could survive without raiding crop fields and was not averse in doing so¡±. Yet, Vinayaga continued raiding farmland in Gudalur, and deterrents such as burnt dry red chilli had no effect on him.

3. The most definitive study on translocated problem Asian elephants was conducted in 2012, in which a team of biologists monitored 12 male elephants translocated 16 times to different national parks in Sri Lanka.

The study found: ¡°Translocated elephants showed variable responses: ¡®homers¡¯ returned to the capture site, ¡®wanderers¡¯ ranged widely, and ¡®settlers¡¯ established home ranges in new areas soon after release. Translocation caused wider propagation and intensification of human-elephant conflict, and increased elephant mortality.¡± Translocation, it concluded, ¡°defeats both conflict mitigation and elephant conservation goals¡±.

Observed Realities

Female and young male elephants live in groups while adult males remain solitary, except when part of a ¡®boy club¡¯ with less mature bulls. Males are more likely than herds to raid crops as they can grow bigger on nutrient-rich food and gain reproductive advantage.

While aggression is part of this ¡®high-risk high-gain¡¯ strategy, very few bulls actually attack humans. But when a male repeatedly crosses that line, he is best removed before he becomes a bad influence for the lesser bulls in the group.

A long-ranging species, elephants need people¡¯s support. Making the community suffer a few problem elephants often risks that fragile goodwill which is vital for the species. That is why the Wildlife Protection Act gives the chief wildlife warden the power to deal with problem animals as necessary.

The four-member expert committee that the HC set up on March 29 had two serving forest officers, a wildlife biologist, and a veterinarian. They recommended that shifting Arikomban to Parambikulam TR was ¡°most likely to avoid human-wildlife conflict¡± and ¡°may gradually shape the animal¡¯s behaviour making it less likely to seek anthropogenic resources over time¡±.

When the safety of people and the animal is at stake, it may not be a difficult choice between betting on ¡®likelihood¡¯ and relying on the lessons from the past.