Both elephants and the Elephant God vie for space in Tamil Nadu

As human stay indoors, tuskers fight to reclaim their space in the State. On one hand, the government has denied public installation of Vinayaga idols due to the coronavirus pandemic. On the other hand, elephants in jungles are straying out of forests trying to reclaim their native space taken away for developmental activities.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department which recently formed a committee to study elephant deaths in the State has begun its re-examination of elephant deaths that occurred since 2017. They are also studying elephant corridors that can be reclaimed.

Foresters have also sounded an alert for villagers in Coimbatore and Erode as elephants are straying along the banks of flooding Bhavani and Cauvery river.

“Top officials in the Forest Department have begun a detailed study on the status of Tamil Nadu elephants aimed to address its conflicts. As a first step, the officially available data of elephant deaths comprising post mortem report, DFO’s report, landscape issues related to elephants and inputs from the residents will be digitised and the final document will be analysed,” said additional principal chief conservator of forests Dr Shekhar Kumar Niraj, who is heading the elephant study committee.

“This is like the reverse pharmacology technique, where you compile all the existing records and look out for scientific clues. There are 55 previous elephant death reports available with the department and now with the recent cases, a total of 60 deaths are to be evaluated and re-examined. More details will be collected from the forest ranges in Coimbatore and The Nilgiris circle, where more deaths have been recorded in the past three and half years,” Niraj, who has authored several studies on wildlife poaching said.

After the evaluation, field visits will be taken up in conflict-prone Mettupalayam, Sirumugai and Thengumarada regions. The land crop pattern in the nearby villages of the elephant corridors and the change in public and elephant behaviour will also be examined. “The loss of human lives due to wildlife conflicts, the change in landscape and the population index, including the sex ratio of pachyderms will also be part of the study. The objective of the report is to find out the scientific reasons for jumbo deaths and come out with long term solutions reducing conflicts. All scientific studies, including zoonotic infections in elephants, will be discreetly examined by a team of veterinarians,” Niraj added.

“Elephants and their mountains are not only the signs of Indian wildlife, but they have a cultural significance embedded in Hindu mythology. An elephant is the only wild mammal housed in temples and there is a need to revert a few systems related to elephant protection,” said Deepak Nambiar, elephant lover and founder of Elephas Maximus Indicus Trust. Nambiar had also released an online campaign on the status of circus elephants and the struggle of wild jumbos facing habitat destruction. Nambiar had also filed a few complaints to the Ministry of Environment and Forests seeking action against foresters for their failure to conserve elephants and their corridors.