of first reproduction: 15-16 years,
birth intervals: between 2.5 and 8
years); and only moderate amounts
of genetic variation within the species
indicative of a small long-term
effective population size.
The Asian elephant require large
amount of water, more than 225
liters per day. This requirement
necessitates their closeness to a
fresh water source. Climate change
with its impact on the water cycle
restricts the availability of fresh water
throughout the year, thereby acting
as an important factor regulating the
spatio-temporal dynamics of Asian
Elephant populations including
their daily activities, migration and
reproduction. In fact, mating is
strongly correlated with rains, thus,
in many areas, birth rate increases
drastically in the post-monsoon
season. In the present scenario,
marked seasonal variability is
observed in precipitation across Asia,
with discrete wet and dry periods
largely influenced by monsoon.
It is projected that the annual
precipitation will be significantly
higher in wet periods and will decline
drastically in dry periods in South
and Southeast Asia. These climatic
changes will result in frequent
incidences of floods and droughts in
the region.
It is estimated that climate is going
to be much warmer with the frequent
occurrence of extreme heat events in
South and Southeast Asia. Hence,
the heat stress is expected to move
animal to regions having preferable
environmental conditions. A recent
study based on Asian elephants in
India and Nepal indicates that the
climate change will shift the range
of Asian elephant towards higher
elevations in Himalayas along
valleys with higher availability of
water. Climate changes will mediate
this relocation of species directly
by impacting temperature and
availability of water, and indirectly
through additional modifications in
the habitat. Asian elephants will
suffer higher mortalities due to higher
temperatures, drought and scarcity of
forage in their habitats. With increase
in temperatures, freshwater supplies
will dwindle, infectious diseases
will spread faster and resultant
‘heat stroke’ can kill elephants.
Youngest elephants, the calves are
especially vulnerable to temperature
extremes. Adult male elephants
become aggressive periodically, and
environmental changes can increase
stress levels increasing the frequency
of these cycles.
Other threats for the existence of
Asian elephants include habitat
loss, degradation and fragmentation
that also increase human-elephant
conflicts. Poaching, though on
a smaller scale for Asian species
compared to the African species, also
influence the population size. This
is largely attributed to the fact that
only some male Asian elephants have
tusks while most of the females are
without tusks.
In Asia, crop raiding has been
identified as the main form of
human-elephant conflicts. Elephants
sometimes prefer to raid crops
because of their higher nutritive
value and palatability. But the
incidences of crop raiding increases
in highly fragmented habitats. These
conflicts results in loss of human
lives and property as well as elephants
populations. According to World
Wildlife Fund, 100 humans (in some
years it may be 300 people) and
40-50 elephants are killed during
crop raiding every year in India
alone. Also, elephants cause damage
to crop and property ranging from
a few thousand dollars to millions
of dollars. Hence, for the viable
conservation of Asian elephants,
steps should be taken to resolve these
conflicts. These include use of
chilli and tobacco-based deterrents,
establishing bee colonies at the
borders to keep elephants out of
fields; changing farming practices-
making farms easier to defend;
growing crops that elephants do not
like; education; and improving oil
and palm plantation practices as in
Malaysia and Indonesia.
Several measures have been taken
at the community level to reduce
the human-elephant conflicts. This
problem has been tackled in Hosur
Forest Division of Tamil Nadu by
educating villagers through folklore
theatre “VeedhiNatakam” with
the objective to teach mitigation
techniques and to promote human
elephant coexistence.
Implementation of early warning
system has also helped to resolve
human-elephant conflicts in the
Valparai plateau, a landscape
matrix of tea, coffee, and rainforest
fragments in the Annamalai hills,
Tamil Nadu. This has been made
possible through several science
based approaches. The information
about the location details of
elephants obtained from Forest
Department is displayed as a ‘crawl’
on local cable TV channel after 5
PM every day. The text messages
in both English and Tamil about
the elephant presence and their
movements within plantations has
been send out to people residing
within 2 km radius of the location
of elephant herds on their mobile
phones through bulk SMS service.
For those, who cannot read,
recorded voice messages regarding
elephant alert has been sent on the
registered mobile numbers. Timely
dissemination of the information
has helped villagers to take adequate
precautions to avoid encounters
with the elephants and protect their
property. Additionally, mobile
operated LED-light alert indicators
were installed in 24 locations to
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