I am always in awe of the
elephants and for the giant that they are, their movements are very slow and gentle.
It is said that an
elephant consumes about 150 kg of plant matter per day. This is no mean feat
and to keep up with this input they have to constantly munch.
Assam, a state in North
India is rich in lush tea gardens and paddy fields. Assam is also home to wild
life specially elephants. It is rare that the elephants encroach into the areas
that are inhabited by humans. But of
late this has been the cause of worry for many especially the local
cultivators. They find that the elephants wander into the tea gardens and paddy
fields, damaging the crops and robing
the livelihood of the farmers.
The forest officials and
the wild life fund (wwf) are worried about the conflict between the humans and
the elephants.
When they investigated,
they found out some startling facts like
the forests in the north has lost about
65 % of its greenery.
The shrinkage in the
habitat has made the elephants more visible and as there is not enough food in
the forest they tend to raid the crops in the vicinity there by creating a
conflict with the local inhabitants.
The farmers tried using fire crackers to scare
away the elephants. This worked only for some time as they got used to the
sound of the crackers
Villagers tried new
strategies like using domesticated elephants to drive away the wild ones but
this was proving costly.
To minimise the human
elephant conflict, the Indian government along with the help of WWF has built
Elephant corridors. This helps the elephants to move from one territory to the
next through a system of fencing and overpasses, keeping wild life away from the
crop fields.
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8 comments:
A very interesting post as was also the rest of the article and video I read from the link you provided. Years ago when I still lived in England, I remember my sister introducing me to Assam tea. She said it was the best she had ever tasted and I enjoyed my cup of tea very much. Little did I know that I would be reading about the difficulties between farmers and elephants from that area years later. I hope that this situation can be resolved amicably for the sake of both farmers and elephants. I have long admired the elephant, truly a magnificent animal.
Interesting post.
Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. I appreciated it very much.
Beth
150kg of plant matter? Wow, that's huge! And yeah...elephants are indeed fascinating...So sad, the wild animals are slowly losing their homes, as mankind is quickly encroaching into their territory!
Elephants seem like such majestic creatures to me. It's hard to imagine how much they must eat to survive. It is a shame that there must be conflict between humans and elephants in trying to share their space on earth. This has happened with so many animals in nature. It's good that they are working to try and find solutions to this problem.
But its humans who have done this , I am sure the reson of the greenery going away from the jungle can be attributed ot human influence in some way or the other ..
when we encroach on elephants land it is ok, and when he does it called a conflict WHY.. not fair .. law shud be same maybe build corridors for HUMANS so they dont spoil things
Bikram's
Elephants are so fascinating. So big, so strong, yet so calm and so (for the most part I think) peaceful.
They are amazing creatures. Enlightening post, thank you
Gentle giants indeed, at least most of the time. They're beautiful and this is such an informative post.
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