Sanctuary | Campaign
Time To Address The Elephant In The Room
On November 6, 2017, the
world was graphically reminded of the
gauntlet that India’s elephants must
negotiate on a daily basis just to access
food, water and safety for their young
ones (see Readers Forum, page 96). A
mind-numbing image of an elephant
mother and calf traumatised by fi re
balls thrown at them by a mob of
young, jeering men, taken two years
ago in Bankura, West Bengal, shook
the conscience of the world. The image
encapsulated a pan-India Human-
Elephant Confl ict (HEC) problem and saw
Biplab Hazra anointed as the Sanctuary
Photographer of the Year 2017 for
off ering visual proof of the gargantuan
Human-Elephant Confl ict that continues
to be aggravated by thoughtless planners
and insensitive ministries at both the
Centre and the State level.
Vital elephant habitats and routes
continue to be ravaged, pushing HEC
to a point where rural communities and
long-ranging elephants (both victims) are
being forced into lethal confl ict.
This struggle is by no means
confi ned to West Bengal. The
unrelenting degradation and destruction
of wildernesses such as Dalma in
Jharkhand, from where the Bankura
herd was displaced several years ago at
the hands of deforestation and mining,
has reached boiling-point in diff erent
parts of India. Sajal Madhu, Sanctuary’s
Mud On Boots Project Leader, has been
working to record and mitigate HEC in
Raigarh under his initiative ‘Hathi Bachao
Sangharsh Samiti’.
Back in May 2015, violation of
wildlife laws by the Numaligarh Refi nery
Limited (NRL) in Assam had deadly
consequences for the elephants of the
Kaziranga landscape. Showing complete
disregard for the rules and the orders
of the National Green Tribunal, the NRL
acquired land very close to Deopahar
Proposed Reserved Forest, Assam, within
the ‘No-development Zone’.
Here, without the necessary
clearances, NRL built a golf course on
the northern side of the old township
by destroying forests, hillocks and
wetlands, and also constructed apermanent solution can be found. As of
now, like a scourge, mobs of young men
have taken to provoking and chasing the
pachyderms, hurling sticks, stones and
in some notorious cases even tar-fi re-
bombs at the terrifi ed animals.
Despite countless appeals made
by wildlife activists and even senior
forest offi cials, the Chief Ministers of
various states have not found within
themselves the necessary motivation to
pursue solutions to put an end to the
suff ering of both man and animal. Such
indiff erence promises to be catastrophic,
as a ticking time bomb of HEC promises
to spin out of control. EWHAT YOU CAN DO:
Sanctuary readers are among the most pro-
active networks in India. As a supporter you can
help these #GiantRefugees by writing to the
Honorable Prime Minister of India and the Union
Environment Minister.
Make the following points:
In the land of Lord Ganesh, protecting wild
elephants and their forested homes must
become a major national priority.
One benefi t of such action would be improved
water and soil regimes and sequesteration of
atmospheric carbon, all collateral benefi ts of
regenerating ecosystems.
It is vital that corridor connectivity between
forests in confl icted state and beyond
be restored.
Until a permanent solution is found, State
police forces should be directed to work
together with Forest Departments on crowd
control so that mobs do not harass elephants
and allow them unfettered passage.
Project Elephant needs to set up a dedicated
task force in close coordination with Project
Tiger since both animals often share the same
habitat. This coordination under the guidance
of trusted experts can make a tangible
diff erence to humans and elephants and
direct the restoration and revival of corridors
in confl ict-states.
You can address polite letters to:
Shri. Narendra Modi,
Honorable Prime Minister of India,
South Block, New Delhi.
Dr. Harshvardhan Singh,
Minister, Environment, Forests and Climate
Change, Indira Paryavaran Bhavan, Jorbagh
Road, New Delhi – 110 003.
You may choose to send a polite email to:
[email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]
With a copy to:
[email protected]massive boundary wall, running more
than two kilometres in length on the
newly-acquired land around Deopahar
forests. This wall eff ectively obstructed
an important elephant corridor. The
wall claimed the life of a seven-year-
old male elephant, whose death was
caused by a severe haemorrhage as
it desperately tried to break through
the wall. Today, another proposed joint
venture between Numaligarh Refi nery
Limited (NRL) and Finland’s Chempolis
Oy, slated to be built just outside the
Deopahar forest, is the next ecological
disaster waiting to happen.
In central India, Chhattisgarh has
seen its own fair share of confl ict that
has claimed the lives of a number of
elephants and people in 2017, including
two women who were trampled to
death by a herd of elephants in May;
and two elephants, one of which was
pregnant, that were electrocuted in
January. By some estimates a terrifying
150 elephant deaths from electrocution
have been recorded between 2000
to 2015.
Sanctuary’s on ground sources
maintain that the situation in the state
is getting bleaker by the day and that
offi cial numbers do not accurately refl ect
ground realities.
In February 2017, Sanctuary
launched its campaign ‘Giant
Refugees’, in support of a herd of
wild elephants caught in simmering
confl ict with humans on the outskirts
of Bhubaneshwar city, Odisha. In a
situation that is strikingly similar to that
of West Bengal’s Bankura elephants,
Odisha’s Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife
Sanctuary, natal home of the herd, had
become too degraded to support the
herd, which would therefore gravitate
towards fi elds where HEC became
inevitable. Wildlife conservationists
have urged that land be acquired and
islanded patches of forests in Odisha’s
Athgarh Forest Division be regenerated
and protected and that the Odisha
Forest Department be fi nancially
and administratively supported so
that a dedicated team can monitor
the movement of the herd until a