Archives

by Tharuka Dissanaike

Years of conservation efforts lie behind us, but the elephant remains in danger. Nearly 150 premature, human-induced deaths a year cannot spell a happy future for the animal, which takes pride of place in this country's natural heritage.

Despite being venerated in religious ritual, out there in the field, where farmers try to eke out a desperate living in the harsh Dry Zone heat, the elephant is nothing more than a huge pest, a marauder, a thief and at times, a killer. Mutual dislike and mistrust between this giant beast and its human neighbours have only grown in recent history, as human need (and greed) for land and its resources has carved a deep path in to the domain of the elephant.

Last week an international symposium was convened in Colombo to address the issues of elephant-human relationships and conflicts. Representatives from elephant-habitat countries- from Nepal to China, Sri Lanka to Sumatra and Kenya to the hills of Arunachal- were present to debate upon and exchange views and share research on elephants and their interactions with humans. The gathering drew some heavyweight experts from the field, Iain Douglas-Hamilton from Kenya, Raman Sukumar from India and Prithiviraj Fernando from Sri Lanka.

What became obvious during the three-days of deliberations was this: man-elephant conflicts are worldwide. Everywhere the elephant has to share its habitat with human activity, conflicts are common and cannot be avoided. In Kenya, in Bangladesh, in Sumatra, in Kerala or Assam, common scenes of crop depredation, human life lost and elephant suffering are replayed over and over. Tragic scenes of an already-poor farmer crying over a destroyed crop, damaged homes, limbs and lives lost in encounters with elephants were displayed by participants across the elephant world.

Even more tragic, the curse upon the elephant, for no fault of its own. Shooting, snaring, poisoning and capturing elephants to control damage to human property or as revenge for damage done, is common in all these countries as well.

But the problem being globally similar gives us but a fleeting sense of comfort. What should be done about it? The solutions are not necessarily macro, although we all could certainly learn more from each other's experiences with solutions. In the end, it is the farmers of village X, in a remote corner of Sri Lanka's agricultural Dry Zone, who face the brunt of the impact. It is they who seek and need a solution. And of course, the harassed elephant.

An interesting facet of the human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka, which was brought to light during the sessions, was the way electricity helped to solve or mitigate the problem in some experimental situations. Needless to say, many of the villages facing crop-raiding elephants at night are among the 50% of households who are yet not connected to the national grid. Two separate projects were presented at the symposium where solar energy was used to power protective mechanisms. In one project, the power was used to trigger an alarm/ siren connected to a trip wire strung around the fields; in the second instance, to power an electric fence that protected farmers and their fields from elephants.

One of the presenters said that electricity-powered strobe lights were a powerful way of keeping elephants at bay, but the high cost and the lack of main-line power prevent farmers from this benign mode of keeping the raiding jumbos away.

Several other speakers felt that it was time to rethink the country's policy towards elephant conservation. Some argued against the conventional wisdom of fencing in national parks to prevent elephants from breaking out into villages. Ranging studies conducted in Yala and Wilpattu border have shown that many elephants roam outside the park perimeter, their home ranges include both park forest and degraded chenas in buffer areas. Other speakers pointed out the consistent failure of elephant drives (where many of the driven animals returned to their original location within weeks) and the danger of ad hoc translocation of 'dangerous' animals. Even the issue of establishing corridors was debated. Plans to put in new corridors when the already existing ones are not afforded protection (i.e the Floodplains National Park) were questioned.

Conservation in this country has always been a top-down issue. Top people made the decisions, wrote the laws and set up an administration to carry them out. The people who are most affected by the problem had little or no say in the mode and methods of protecting the elephant, although it was their life and livelihood that was at stake here.

What came out, increasingly, in the symposium is the need to involve people in conservation. The need for people to see elephants in a benign light, even as a source of income. Laws and rules alone will not bring down the numbers of dead elephants. We need the active support of the poor chena farmer battling out there in the wilderness, if we are to reduce the animosity that exists today.

www.crescat.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager