Securing the Future for Elephants in India - Ministry of Environment ...

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populations rests on consolidating habitats and maintaining the integrity of corridors. The latter are as vital as the former. Given its size and longevity the elephant will find strictly protected habitats indispensable for survival. At the same time corridors are vital to enable the maintenance of genetic diversity. Bereft of critical corridors, the populations of elephants in strictly protected habitats will be isolated and much more vulnerable even in the medium term. a) Of the ten landscapes, this task force has prioritized five major elephant landscapes for initiating a more integrated and comprehensive strategy for conservation. These are the Brahmagiri-Nilgiri-Eastern Ghats landscape, East-Central landscape, North-Western landscape, Kameng-Sonitpur landscape and the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong-Intanki landscapes. The other existing five Elephant Landscapes (erstwhile ranges) can be taken up in due course. All numbers are subject to revision once more robust methods of estimation are taken up but present census estimates are cited below as per the record. 1. North-Western Landscape The North Western elephant population in India was once continuously distributed over parts of erstwhile Uttar Pradesh from Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary to the Yamuna river (Singh, 1978). Currently the elephant occupies about 10,000 km 2 forests in the outer Himalaya and the Shivalik Hill ranges and parts of Terai and Bhabar tracts. The steep Himalayas and the Shivaliks bound this elephant range to the north and the fertile Terai to the south. About six sub-populations are known to occur over this landscape: Katerniaghat Wildlife Division, in and around Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, between Sharada river and Haldwani Town, Haldwani and Khoh river, Khoh and Ganga rivers and between River Ganga and Yamuna (Javed, 1996). The break around the Khoh river and Ganga is still crossed by bull elephants. The elephant habitat in the North West has six Protected Areas viz Rajaji National Park, Corbett Tiger Reserve that includes the Sona Nadi Wildlife Sanctuary, and Dudhwa Tiger Reserve that includes the Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and Katerniaghat Wildlife Division. Recently a few 41
elephants were reported to visit Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctaury east of Katernighat Wildlife Division from Bardia National Park. The altitude varies from 200-1000m. The growing human population and their encroachment of the elephant habitat has not only fragmented the habitat but has also led to degradation of the available habitat. Dependence on the forest for fuel, timber, livestock grazing and conversion of natural forest into monoculture plantation of tea, eucalypts, have severely degraded the habitat and exotics like Lantana and Parthenium have taken root. The impact of “Gujjar” settlements on the habitat is multifarious (Dabadghao and Shankaranarayan, 1973; Johnsingh et al., 1990; Johnsingh and Joshua, 1994). Two Elephant Reserves are located in this landscape (the Shivalik Elephant Reserve in Uttarakhand and the Uttar Pradesh Elephant Reserve in Uttar Pradesh. Twelve corridors have been identified in this elephant range. 2. North Bengal-Greater Manas landscape There are about 300-350 elephants in the Dooars of Northern West Bengal, spread across the districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar, comprising nine Forest Divisions, viz. Kurseong, Wildlife-I, Baikunthapur, Kalimpong, Wildlife-II, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Buxa Tiger Reserve (West) and Buxa Tiger Reserve (East). Although this number is only a little above 1% of the total elephant population of India, an extraordinarily high human-elephant conflict, characterizes this region. Northern West Bengal has a forest area of 3051 km 2 or about 24% of the total geographical area of forests of the state. However, the elephant habitat is confined to about 2200 km 2 in three distinct geographical zones, viz. (a) The terai stretch between the Mechi River and the Teesta River, comprising of the forest areas of the Kurseong Division and the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, (b) The western Dooars stretch between the Teesta and Torsa rivers comprising Apalchand range of Baikunthapur Division, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong and Cooch Behar Forest Divisions, 42
Page 2 and 3: Gajah Securing the Future for Eleph
Page 4 and 5: Public hearings were organized at t
Page 6 and 7: Contents Acknowledgements i Table o
Page 8 and 9: Executive Summary Securing a future
Page 10 and 11: of land use. While securing viable
Page 12 and 13: Gajah is a symbol of a search for b
Page 14 and 15: PROPOSED STRUCTURE OF ELEPHANT CONS
Page 16 and 17: CHAPTER 1 Introduction Securing the
Page 18 and 19: But we can succeed. Indeed we must:
Page 20 and 21: From the outset, the objective was
Page 22 and 23: CHAPTER 2 Establishing a better gov
Page 24 and 25: ise and is currently at an all time
Page 26 and 27: The Chief Wildlife Wardens of the e
Page 28 and 29: of large numbers of residents in th
Page 30 and 31: Of these ten Elephant Landscapes th
Page 32 and 33: In the 8 th Five Year Plan the allo
Page 34 and 35: CHAPTER 3 Upgrading Research and Mo
Page 36 and 37: deduce any reliable inference in de
Page 38 and 39: Block sample count The total count
Page 40 and 41: (0.0097) from single source study c
Page 42 and 43: Tier 1: Dung surveys for elephant o
Page 44 and 45: Tier 3: Characterization of elephan
Page 46 and 47: 5. Information transparency The Tas
Page 50 and 51: Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary, Chapr
Page 52 and 53: There are two Elephant Reserves in
Page 54 and 55: cultivated lands. Heavy traffic on
Page 56 and 57: Orissa has about 57% of the elephan
Page 58 and 59: sal (Shorea robusta) forests as a r
Page 60 and 61: Hills form the Tamil Nadu part of t
Page 62 and 63: India have put in additional resour
Page 64 and 65: Government and non government organ
Page 66 and 67: c) Infrastructure and development p
Page 68 and 69: is about 18 % of the total recorded
Page 70 and 71: non-forest uses will be subject to
Page 72 and 73: clearing of forest is one of the mo
Page 74 and 75: afforestation, year-wise phased for
Page 76 and 77: h. An independent system of concurr
Page 78 and 79: The Background CHAPTER 5 Mitigating
Page 80 and 81: Secondly, conflict mitigation evolv
Page 82 and 83: Landscape management of HEC The int
Page 84 and 85: a. Opportunistic raiding: If given
Page 86 and 87: mitigation strategy that will event
Page 88 and 89: Field Level Issues Field level issu
Page 90 and 91: (Jharkhand), Majuli (Assam), Rom-Mu
Page 92 and 93: construction and maintenance are al
Page 94 and 95: eing properly applied (by the gover
Page 96 and 97: egions in India, taking into accoun
Page 98 and 99:
CHAPTER 6 Anti poaching, Trade and
Page 100 and 101:
esults in loss of life and limb for
Page 102 and 103:
male reproduction between 25 and 30
Page 104 and 105:
A shift in demand will render the i
Page 106 and 107:
Legal importation of soft ivory doe
Page 108 and 109:
documented a Japanese ivory carver
Page 110 and 111:
g. Regular information gathering al
Page 112 and 113:
4. Policy interventions including C
Page 114 and 115:
most states of India. These numbers
Page 116 and 117:
include the phasing out of elephant
Page 118 and 119:
that having a certificate of owners
Page 120 and 121:
employment. Their knowledge too des
Page 122 and 123:
Owners are the link between the ele
Page 124 and 125:
c. A one time amnesty for elephant
Page 126 and 127:
n. Activities that cause stress and
Page 128 and 129:
elephant conservation and the scien
Page 130 and 131:
The immediate priority should be th
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The Manasolasa by Someswara, a Sans
Page 134 and 135:
The ubiquity of elephants in everyd
Page 136 and 137:
CHAPTER 10 Summary Recommendations
Page 138 and 139:
9. The Task Force recommends settin
Page 140 and 141:
4. It is envisaged to establish Ope
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important to sensitize local commun
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15. Database for elephant related c
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11. All mahouts in service and newl
Page 148 and 149:
9. Fences and Trenches can only wor
Page 150 and 151:
References Ali, S. A. 1927. The Mog
Page 152 and 153:
Datye, H.S.1995. Ecology of elephan
Page 154 and 155:
detection probabilities are less th
Page 156 and 157:
Sar, C.K. and Lahiri Choudhury 2001
Page 158 and 159:
Varma, S. Venkataraman,A., Sukumar,
Page 160 and 161:
24. Jadavaden Namboodri, Trustee, V
Page 162 and 163:
71. R.M. Nair, Kerala 72. Rajappan
Page 164 and 165:
Annexure II List of Hearings held b
Page 166 and 167:
2 Kameng -Sonitpur Landscape (Aruna
Page 168 and 169:
9 Periyar- Agasthyamalai Landscape
Page 170 and 171:
Northern India Annexure IV(b) Prior
Page 172 and 173:
4 Talamalai-Guttiyalattur 5 Avaraha
Page 174 and 175:
etter way of restoring water rechar
Page 176 and 177:
6. Budgeting should be provided whe
Page 178 and 179:
Annexure VII Enumeration of Elephan
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No. of Visit Date of Visit No. of f
Page 182 and 183:
8. Recording Observations: A Dung D
Page 184 and 185:
Pg 1/3 Annexure VIII ELEPHANT CENSU
Page 186:
Pg 3/3 III South Brahamputra 9. Dih
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