NATURE
Elephants prefer coffee
Archana Jyoti

Jumbos prefer to travel through the groves of coffee and eucalyptus rather than human-dominated tea plantations, according to a team of researchers tracking the movement of elephants in the Western Ghats. For three years, the researchers, who have been tracking the movement of two herds of elephants in the Valparai plateau, found that the jumbos may prefer groves of coffee, a seasonal fruit crop and eucalyptus to roaming in tea plantations that witness more intensive, year-round tea-leaf harvesting.

"Also, the availability of tree canopy, along with secondary vegetation, and grass growth in the plantations of coffee and eucalyptus appeared to provide cover and fodder for the elephants," say researchers M Ananda Kumar, Divya Mudappa, and T R Shankar Raman from Karnataka-based Nature Conservation Foundation in their report published in the latest edition of Tropical Conservation Science.

Researchers had tracked the pachyderms everyday between April 2002 and March 2006 in the 220 sq km area of the Valparai plateau in the Annamalai hills dominated by monoculture plantations of tea, coffee, and eucalyptus, with interspersed habitats such as rainforest fragments, riparian vegetation, swamps and settlements.

They found that elephant usage of habitat was also influenced by the time of the day, with natural vegetation areas being preferred by day and greater usage of tea plantations at night.

"This pattern may be attributed to greater time spent on feeding and other activities in areas which provide fodder and cover during the day, while tea plantation was mainly used for movement between foraging areas at night," they say.

Asian elephants are currently listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List and their number is declining due to poaching and habitat loss, particularly corridors.

The elephants living in a combination of fragmented forests and agricultural landscapes were found to be dependent on natural landscapes like rivers and forests for survival. Based on the findings, the writers have suggested that in fractured landscapes such as the Valparai plateau, forest fragments and riparian vegetation play important roles in the ecology of elephants.

"Conserving these patches and protecting them from further degradation is crucial for the conservation of elephants as they are highly dependent on natural vegetation despite its patchy and clumped distribution," says the report.

The study further recommends promoting coffee and eucalyptus over tea plantations in the region by "preventing conversion of plantation habitats such as coffee with shade tree cover to tea plantations." — PTI

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