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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