Help Save Elephants in India

Human-Elephant conflict mitigation in Assam through community mobilization

With the support of GlobalGiving, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) helped in providing aid to high Human-elephant conflict (HEC) prone areas in Assam, North-east of India. HEC is one of the rising complex issues of today. Elephants cannot survive simply through strict protection of National parks and sanctuaries. Habitats outside reserves often act as crucial link or corridor between large tracts of habitats. However, unprecedented human population growth has caused increasing conversion of natural habitat to human dominated landscapes, bringing elephants and humans in close contact and conflict.

Assam in North-east India exemplifies HEC amongst agricultural communities. Golaghat and Karbi-Anglong areas in Assam are one of the oldest elephant habitats, having an elephant density as high as 0.16 per sq.Km. (Elephant census 2017). A total of 303 people have reportedly died and 137 were injured in Assam since 2011. The loss incurred due to crop raiding by elephants averages to around 110,000 $ each year (Documented by government, 2012). Such heavy losses in the area urged WTI to help the local communities in the area to address the issue.

 While the forest department has taken steps to reduce the incidences of crop raiding, the communities unanimously felt the need to assist them in addressing the issue. The villagers from twelve conflict prone villages, Golaghat district decided to form anti-depredation squads and built machans (watchtowers) in strategic points using their own resources to monitor elephant movement and divert them away. On finding that the members of the anti-depredation squads lacked some basic equipment, WTI distributed powerful searchlights and blankets which would help them keep a watch on elephants at night.

 The success story of Thoramukh, Golaghat district in mitigating conflict encouraged the neighboring villages of West Karbi-Anglong to adopt the same strategy. Thirteen local anti-depredation squad members of Tumpreng and Rongkhang, West Karbi-anglong were also supported with field equipment (Powerful searchlights and blankets). The Karbi-Anglong Council is planning on working in close partnership with WTI and initiating more such conflict mitigation projects in the area.

Such elephant-orientated efforts like conflict resolution and community involvement can act as a bridge between local people and conservation efforts of the forest department. Communities that would otherwise have high risk of becoming involved in poaching and developing resentment and animosity toward elephants, by active inclusion and involvement in anti-poaching and conflict-mitigation efforts will eventually help in protecting elephants.

 "We are thankful to the donors for providing us this much-needed equipment"  Ram Baruah, a member of one of the anti-depredation squads. “These high-powered searchlights supported by WTI and Global giving donors will definitely help the villagers drive elephants away from croplands during the night” said Mr. Bey,  Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) 

Wildlife Trust of India is thankful to all the donors at GlobalGiving for their generous donations towards the cause and encouraging us  through their continuous support.

The forests of Golaghat and adjacent district of Karbi-Anglong symbolize a key landscape for elephants, represented by a number of reserve forests and sanctuaries. There are established corridors (Kalapahar-Daigurung) in the region, which the elephants use as their migratory path between patches of forests. However, in the last decade or so the area has experienced high levels of fragmentation owing to the large-scale destruction of forests, caused by expansion of agriculture lands, tea gardens, linear infrastructures, mining etc. The obliteration of their natural corridor has exposed these gentle giants to conflict with humans living along the forest fringes. Depleting resources within the forests has additionally contributed to higher levels of conflict, as herds of elephants visit these fringe villages in search of food and water. Loss of crop, property and human lives due to raiding elephants, has forced the locals to see them as a threat to their well being.

Thoramukh and Thorajan in the south west part of the Golaghat district lie in close proximity to three protected areas i.e. Nambor Doi RF, Garampani WLS, Daigurung RF and experience high levels of crop raiding cases, especially during the paddy season. As per records, the elephant herds here destroy 70-80% of the total crop produce, which puts a major economic dent on the farmers. Recently, the affected locals unanimously decided to address this issue and have plans to construct watch towers. They are also in the process of forming anti depredation squads (each squad to have 4-5 members), by engaging youths from the affected villages. However, they lack and are in need of technical guidance to carry this initiative effectively. As a result, they requested Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) to assist them in this and provide basic gears such as high powered torches for the squads, to help them drive away the crop raiding elephants from the fields.

WTI acknowledging this initiative has agreed to assist them in implementing the mitigation measures, thereby reducing crop loss and retaliatory killing of elephants. Through this endeavour, WTI also aims to showcase the effectiveness of a community driven model to mitigate HEC in the targeted region.