Nature
Elephantine threat
S.M.A. Kazmi

The recent killing of two elephants by the forest department officials in Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, respectively, bring forth the problem being faced by the wild pachyderms due to the shrinking forest cover and decreasing availability of food. In separate incidents, Osama, a tusker which had killed eight persons, was shot in Jharkhand while another tusker from Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand was shot by park officials after the two elephants went berserk killing humans. These elephants were on the verge of entering human settlements when they were killed.

Since Uttarakhand came into being in 2000, there have been increasing reports of conflict between humans and the wild animals, especially elephants from the Corbett National Park and Rajaji National Park, home to Asiatic elephants. The state which has a population of 1346 elephants, including 515 in Corbett National Park and 418 in Rajaji National park, has seen 91 persons having been killed by the elephants since 2000. Most of the humans were killed when they ventured into the forests.

There have also been incidents of elephant poaching such as the one in 2001 at Corbett National Park, the first national wildlife park of the country. The attack by elephants on the humans point towards another major problem. Asiatic wild elephants living in the area are under tremendous strain due to human encroachments in their habitat. Earlier, the elephants of the state had a continuous habitat ranging from the Yamuna river in the west to the Sharda river in the east. However, the continuity of their habitat has been broken due to several reasons.

Firstly, the growth of the Haldwani town has fragmented the wild habitat in the east between the central Terai division and Haldwani, south Pitthoragarh and east Terai divisions.

Secondly, there have been biotic disturbances arising from Kotdwar. The villages west of Kotdwar are rapidly fragmenting the habitat between Chilla-Laldhang forests in the west and Koluchaur forests in the east, and thirdly, disturbances arising from Hardwar and Raiwala have almost broken the connectivity between the forests to the east and west of the Ganga river. The elephants of the area had been crossing the Ganges through Chilla-MotiChur and Satyanarayan corridors, located near Hardwar. This movement across the river is considered essential by wildlife experts to maintain the ‘gene flow’. However, with the coming up of residential buildings, ashrams and factories, the developmental activities in the area has restricted the free movement of the wild elephants. Moreover, the passing trains on the Hardwar-Dehra Dun stretch have killed scores of elephants and their calves.

The increasing urbanisation and shifting of the human habitat towards the forests seems to have made the elephants circumspect of human intentions. "There is tremendous pressure on the elephants due to their shrinking habitat and closure of their natural corridors. We are planning to build overhead corridors at Chilla-Motichur so that the mammoths are not disturbed by the heavy traffic flow on the Hardwar-Rishikesh route," Uttarakhand Chief Wildlife Warden Shrikant Chandola said.

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