Fatal Human and Elephant Conflicts, 2000-2017: Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Southern Western Ghats

M. Deivanayaki; N. Ezhilarasi; B. Ramakrishnan

doi:10.36808/if/2019/v145i10/149189

Fatal Human and Elephant Conflicts, 2000-2017: Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Southern Western Ghats

Authors

M. Deivanayaki Department of Zoology, Government Arts College, Coimbatore - 18
N. Ezhilarasi Department of Zoology and Wildlife Biology, Government Arts College, Udhagamandalam, Tamil Nadu
B. Ramakrishnan Department of Zoology and Wildlife Biology, Government Arts College, Udhagamandalam, Tamil Nadu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36808/if/2019/v145i10/149189

Keywords:

Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Human-Elephant Conflict, Human Deaths, Elephant Deaths.

Abstract

Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) is one of the challenges that the forest managers face today. An attempt was made to consolidate HEC in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) from the period 2000-2017.The secondary data were collected from the records of the forest department. The result revealed that there were thirty-nine human deaths and forty-one human injuries caused by elephant. Of which 92% of causalities were caused by wild elephants and 8% by captive elephants. Maximum numbers of deaths were recorded in 2011 and no deaths were recorded in 2010, 2013 and 2016. Most of the human deaths (94%) were recorded outside of the forest areas. Of which 77% were occurred in Tea plantations. Among the six ranges in ATR, high causality and injury was recorded in Manombolly range (59%), High human causalities were recorded in December and February months, few incidences were recorded in the months of March and July. Totally 176 elephant deaths were recorded from 2001 to 2017 and in which maximum 21 (12%) in 2012, 2013 and minimum 2 (1%) in 2001 and 2002. The result shows that natural factors (50%) were the main causes for elephant death than the accidental factors (29%).

References

Balmford A., Joslin Moore L., Brooks T., Nell Burgess, Louis A., Hansen., Paul Williams and Carsten Rahbek. (2001). Conservation Conflicts Across Africa. Wilson Applied Science and Technology, 291( 5513):2616-19.

Bist S.S. (2002). An overview of elephant conservation in India. India Forester, 128(10):121-136.

Baskara N., Kannan G. and Anbarasan U. (2007). Conservation of elephant population and its implications for the management of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve India. In: Final Report. Final Report to United states Fish and Wildlife Service. Asian Nature Conservation Foundation, C/O Centre of Ecological Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Datye H.S. and Bhagawat A.M. (1995). Man-Elephant conflict: A case study of human deaths caused by elephants in parts of central India. In: A Week with Elephants (J.C.Daniel and H.S.Datye, eds.), Bombay Natural History Society/Oxford University Press, Bombay, 340-367pp.

Daniels R.J.R. and Vencatesan J. (2008). Western Ghats: biodiversity, people, and conservation. New Delhi: Rupa & Co.

Granados A., Weladji R.B. and Loomis. (2012). Movement and Occurrence of two elephant herds in a human-dominated landscape, the Benoue wildlife conservation area, Cameroon. Tropical Coservation Science, 5(2):150-162.

Horae R.E. (2012). Lesson from 15 years of Human Elephant mitigation Management Considerations Involving Biological, Physical and Government issues in Africa.

Karthick S. and Ramakrishnan B. (2018). Human elephant conflict issues in the fragmented 'O' valley forest range, Gudalur forest division, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. Inter. J. of Current Research in Life Sciences, 7(4):1852-1857.

Kumar M. and Raghunathan G. (2014). Fostering Human-Elephant Co-existence in the Valparai Landscape, Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu. Human-Wildlife Conflict Resolution in the Mountains of SAARC-Success Stories.

Lingaraju H.G. and Venkataramana G.V. (2014). Elephant deaths due to Human Elephant Conflict in and around Bandipur National Park, Karnataka, India. Res. J. of Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sciences, 2(11): 7-12.

Leimgruber P., Gagnon, J.B., Wemmer C., Kelly D.S., Songer M.A. and Selig E.R. (2003). Fragmentation of Asia's remaining wild lands: implications for Asian elephant conservation. Animal Conservation, 6:347-359.

MoEF and CC. (2014). India's Fifth National Report to Convention on Biological Diversity. Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, 100pp.

Padhi P. and Singh (2010). Coexistence with elephant of nature. A commitment by people of Orissa Forest and Environment Department Government of odisha.

Pradhan R.N., Behera P. Mohapatra R.K and Sahu K. (2013). Human-Elephant Conflict in Dhenkanal Forest Division, Odisa, India. African Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 5(4):193-199.

Ramakrishnan B. (2007). Status of wildlife Corridors and their use by selected endangered mammals in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India. Ph.D thesis submitted to Bharathiyar University, Tamil Nadu.

Ramkumar K., Ramakrishnan B., Karthick S and Saravanamuthu R. (2014). Human and Elephant (Elephas maximus) deaths due to conflict in Coimbatore Forest Division, Tamil Nadu, India. ZOO's PRINT, Volume XXIX, Number 8.

Sajeev T.K., Srivasatava S.K., Raphael M.G., Dutt S., Ramachandran N.K. and Tyagi P.C. (2002). Management of forest in India for Biological Diversity and Forests Productivity, A New Perspective - Volume III: Anamalai Conservation Area (ACA). WII-USDA Forest Service Collaborative Project Report, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.

Santiapillai C. and Jackson P. (1990). The Asian elephant: An action plan for its conservation. IUCN, Switzerland.

Sinha M.K. (1981). Elephant migration in Kazianga. Tiger Paper, 8(1):16-18.

Sitati N.W., Walpole M.J., Smith R.J. and Leader-Williams N. (2003). Predicting spatial Aspects of Human-elephant conflict. J. Applied Ecology, 40:667-677.

Sukumar R. and Santiapillai C. (2006). Planning for Asian elephant conservation. Gajah: J. Asian Elephant Specialist Group, 25: 9-20.

Sukumar R and Gadgil M. (1988). Male-female differences in foraging on crops by Asian elephants. Animal Behavior, 36:1233-1235.

Sukumar R. (1989). The Asian Elephant: Ecology and Management. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Sukumar R., Baskaran N., Dharmarajan G., Roy M., Suresh H.S and Narendran K. (2003). Study of the Elephants in Buxa Tiger Reserve Adjoining Areas in Northern West Bengal and Preparation of Conservation Action Plan. Final Report, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Sukumar R. (1986). Elephant, Man Conflict in Karnataka, Karnataka State of Environment Report.

Sukumar R., Dattaraja H.S., Suresh H.S., Radhakrishnan J., Vasudeva R., Nirmala S. and Joshi N.V. (1998). Dynamics of a deciduous forest: population changes (1988 through 1993) in a 50 hectare plot at Mudumalai, Southern India. In: Forest Biodiversity Research, Monitoring and Modeling: Conceptual Back ground and Old World Case Studies (Dallmeier F., Comiskey, J.A. eds.), UNESCO, Paris and The Parthenon Publishing group. Man and The Biosphere Series, 20:495-506.

Swain D. and Patnaik S.K. (2002). Elephants of Orissa: Conservation Issues and ManagementOptions, 128 (2): 235-242.

Thouless C.R. (1994). Conflict between humans and elephants on private land in northern Kenya. Oryx, 28 (2):119-127.

Vidya T.N.C., Fernando P., Melnick D.H. and Sukumar R. (2005). Population differentiation within and among Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) populations in southern India. Heredity, 94: 71-80.