The Hindu Business Line : Trunk call in distress

Snuggled in the thickly forested Western Ghats, overlooked by the brooding Kalanandigad fort, Kaliwade in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district is like any other farming village, demure and unmeddling. But there’s something peculiar these days about this place in Chandgad tehsil. Hanging outside most households are empty tin boxes. Inside there are sticks, torches (mashals), fire-crackers, even country-made pistols kept within easy reach. Quiz the residents about the m and their faces turn grim. These are their first defences against a newfound adversary — the elephant. Even the mere mention of the tusked mammal sends shivers down their spines. Besides trampling precious standing crops, the wayward elephants also caused the death of a sexagenarian, Umaji Gurav, in February 2006.

A new problem

Kolhapur and Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra are fast turning into yet another theatre of man-animal confrontation. Wild elephants are straying well over 200 km from the Dandeli forests in neighbouring Karnataka. More than two-dozen villages in the area have witnessed similar tales of death and destruction.

Until six years ago, elephants here were as rare as unicorns. That’s why those who sighted them first couldn’t believe their eyes. Even the forest department took a while to accept that elephants had indeed entered Maharashtra. It was only following fatal attacks on villagers like Gurav and Lila Patil of Khanapur tehsil that the forest officials finally woke up to their presence in the region, if not accord the problem its due seriousness.

By 2004, the elephants had not just grown familiar with the Dodamarg region of Sindhudurg but also taken a liking to it. That was no surprise, given the region’s dense forests, lush paddy and sugarcane plantations, and abundant water, thanks to the Tillari irrigation project. The animals soon became regular visitors, stomping and gorging on the crops and trees, including coconut and areca nut that take over a decade to yield fruit. The fact that these animals seldom stay at one place for more than a few days compounded the problem, as they expanded their activity to the Ajara, Chandgad, Bhudargad, Gadhinglaj and Radhanagari areas of the State. Between 11 and 18 elephants and calves are believed to be in this trespassing herd. Last year, the herd spent more than two months in the region, much longer than its usual stay.

Hope is in short supply for the villagers today. The pachyderms have grown used to the common defences and are no longer intimidated by them. Locating the elephants in sugarcane fields is an arduous job. But one angry roar of the tuskers is enough to send the villagers scurrying for cover. The herd then assumes control of the sugarcane and paddy fields, often camping there overnight. When it disperses at daybreak, it leaves in its wake a trail of devastation and helpless farmers holding their heads in despair. Lands green with promise can overnight turn into fields of dashed hopes. With sunset, the darkest fears return to haunt the villagers, as they fret for their lives and livelihoods.

Confused thinking

Much like the environmentalists, the authorities choose to look at the elephants as a highlight of the region’s wildlife. Even the official Web site of the Sindhudurg district states: “Recently elephants are also making entry into Sindhudurg District (Dodamarg taluka) from Karnataka state through Khanapur jungle. This is the first time, elephants finding habitation in Maharashtra state. Tillari major irrigation project area (Dodamarg taluka) is covered with lush dense rain forest is most suitable for elephant habitat.” (Sic)

In reality the government and forest officials are bewildered by the turn of events and the lack of timely intervention has only added to the villagers’ woes. In January 2005, a team of 18 forest department personnel was sent to track and contain the ‘invaders’, but without so much as proper vehicles, communication equipment, weapons, or even shoes and uniforms. In 2004, an ambitious but ill-planned “Elephant Back to Home” project was undertaken. Hundreds of forest department personnel assisted by armed police and home guards, aided by elephant catchers and domesticated elephants, attempted to send back a herd of wild elephants to Karnataka. However, based on inadequate information and amateur assumptions, the project came a cropper. The elephant issue has since acquired a political hue. Demonstrations, road blockades and protests have become the order of the day. Forest officials are now reluctant to accept a posting in this region. Environmentalists ascribe the problem to dwindling forest cover, human encroachment in elephant corridors, increase in monoculture plantations in the Dandeli wildlife sanctuary, and dipping groundwater levels.

Political muddling

Unfortunately, the feeling that the elephants are enemies has started striking roots in the minds of the villagers. In February last year, four elephants were found dead near Jelugude village in Chandgad tehsil. The official explanation was that the animals had come in contact with broken live electric wires lying in a field. Environmentalists and wildlife lovers, however, suspect foul play. Says Madhav Gogte, former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, “It is imperative to either block the route these elephants take into the State or establish a three-State elephant zone and contiguous forest range, which will also help preserve vital resources like water.”

Ministerial and other official visits to these villages have often been about face-saving gestures. “We can think of growing sugarcane in Karnataka, so that the elephants don’t come to Maharashtra in search of it,” the Maharashtra Minister for Forests and Environment Babanrao Pachpute had once told the affected villagers, before advising them to refrain from storing sugarcane, salt and liquor near homes, wearing shining, white clothes, beaming torches, hurling stones or shouting at elephants. “Burn chilly powder, as its smoke drives away the animals. Tie ropes coated with chilly powder around the fields,” he’d read out from a prepared speech.

Last year itself, V. Clemen Ben, Deputy Conservator of Forests, had hinted that a Rs 1.31-crore proposal, which involves elephant-proof trenches, solar fences with electrification, watchmen, farmer education to spur them to change crop patterns to chilly and tobacco, and increased cash compensation, was ready to mitigate wild elephant damage. In 2006, the Maharashtra forest department had also been told by the Centre to prepare the areas in Kolhapur for elephant habitation. But the going has been disappointingly slow. Earlier in April this year, Pachpute reiterated in the State assembly that the State government had tied up with wildlife experts to restrict the damage and was prepared to seek assistance from national, international and local wildlife experts. But there is little evidence of a difference on the ground.

The chief ministers and forest ministers of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka have met on quite a few occasions to review the situation. The Maharashtra government package of Rs 40,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 2,000 compensation for every acre of sugarcane, paddy and coconut fields damaged by elephants has brought some succour, but hasn’t paved the way for a lasting solution. According to A.V. Ashtekar, Controller of Forests (Kolhapur division), one of the ways of dealing with the menace is to identify and capture trouble-making elephants, cage them and inure them to human company. Kunki, a specially trained elephant, is being used to achieve this. However good all this may sound, what the villagers are looking for is some immediate relief. Unless that materialises, villages like Kaliwade will continue to be pictures of fear and anxiety.

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