2006-7 annual report - Nature Conservation Foundation

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nant plantation crop on the Valparai plateau occupies nearly three-fourths of the landscape followed by coffee and cardamom. Eucalypt patches were raised as fuel clearings to meet energy requirements of tea factories. This mosaic of habitats may have differential effect on elephant use of habitats on their regular movement between surrounding protected forests. The natural vegetation in this region is comprised of rainforest fragments and vegetation along rivers which constitutes less than 1%. In four years of study and monitoring between 2002 and 2007, elephants were found to use areas with natural vegetation more than monoculture plantations, despite their lower availability on the plateau. Since 2002, the use of tea has decreased and with a corresponding increase in the use of natural vegetation by elephants. Nearly 80% of elephant sightings were noticed away from human colonies which are widely scattered in the high human-density plateau (454 people/km²). The study indicates that elephants have a tendency to avoid human settlements and prefer habitats with tree cover for their food, shelter, and movement. Most of the conflicts in the Valparai region were due to damage to property which store food grains such as rice, dhal and other lentils and residential places. Since most of rations shops and noon-meal centres are either within the or close to habitations, damages were also noticed to human colonies. Since 2002, there has been 50% decline in number of conflict incidents and associated costs on the plateau with an annual average of 108 incidents (including numerous minor incidents such as eating garden/banana plants close to houses) and Rs. 333,000 cost, respectively. Upon investigating the high conflict places in the last four years, there were only six ration shops, four noon-meal centres, and six human colonies that have been repeatedly damaged by elephants. These places need to be prioritized for immediate protection to minimize human-elephant conflict. Plantation companies such as Tata Coffee Ltd have taken steps to shift ration shops away from colonies based on our suggestions. Steps have been initiated with the local media and the Forest Department staff by conducting workshops and frequent news publications about elephants being published in the vernacular (Tamil) and English daily newspapers. Fifteen news items have been published in the last one year as an attempt to develop provide regular news about elephant movement, their presence, and measures to reduce conflicts through the mass media. This has effectively resulted in ‘No human death’ for 31 months between November 2004 and May 2007. The Tamil newspaper reporters voluntarily agreed to publish positive articles about elephants at regular intervals to communicate to the people of the Valparai plateau. We hope that continuing such steps through the media will have a positive impact on conflict resolution and foster human-elephant coexistence. Decreasing conflict between people and elephants over the last few years in the Valparai plateau region. The number of accidental human deaths due to elephants has also declined. 30 annual report
Living amidst rainforests: tribal livelihoods and resource use Understanding demography, livelihoods, and resource use patterns of forest-dwelling peoples is an integral part of designing conservation strategies. This project carried out by Manish Chandi attempts to understand the livelihood of tribal people living inside the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary, their means to livelihood, linkages to natural resources, and present socio-economic status. Six scheduled tribal communities live within the sanctuary in 36 settlements. This study covered three communities spread in 8 settlements living within or adjacent to rainforests. The communities under review are the Kadar, Muthuvar, and Malai Malasar in 8 chosen settlements. They are culturally distinct communities with different cultural histories, though regionally they share a history of contact and assimilation. The Kadars and the Malai Malasars were a community hunting and gathering in the Anamalai forests at different elevations more than a hundred and fifty years ago (from when the first records for the region are available). Whereas a range of cultural beliefs and systems have been incorporated in their lives today after nearly a hundred years of contact and assimilation, one of the earliest practices they absorbed was agriculture, learnt with their contact with the Muthuvar tribe. The Muthuvar are a community said to have fled the Kingdom of Madurai in the Pandian era and colonised the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats eventually moving farther afield, occupying some areas close to the higher ranges in parts of what are today the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. These communities have witnessed many changes in their habitat in the form of forestry operations, colonisation of their lands via tea plantations, and also the construction of a series of dams. These inroads to the forest changed their habitat and their use of the habitat from foraging for consumption to foraging for income generation. These practices have further changed with their lives becoming sedentary after the establishment of the Indira Gandhi Wildlife sanctuary and National Park. The transitions and acculturation experienced during the use of large tracts of forest for purposes ranging from forestry and plantations of tea and coffee to the trade in minor forest products has a bearing on their socio-economic condition and livelihood choices. For long the primary source of income has been through the sale of minor forest products until regulations to reduce the practice set in with the establishment of the park. Cultivated cash crops such as cardamom have also been sources of earning income, though employment as daily wage labourers in a variety of forest management and plantation activities in recent decades has provided employment opportunities during drier months. Such work has largely been taken up only by the Kadars and Malai Malasars with infrequent involvement of the Muthuvars. Other ventures such as lemon grass distillation, temporary jobs in the plains have been erratic although they did contribute to income. Small-scale cultivation of other cash crops such as pepper, turmeric, and coffee is being attempted by some communities, although daily wage labour and sale of minor forest produce remain primary sources of income. Although these people avail of some employment opportunities with the forest department, their integration with conservation goals of the sanctuary through opportunities in administration of the park remain tenuous. Through interactions we learnt that borrowings and savings are serious but not obvious issues affecting livelihoods. Further there has been a history of an exploitative trader-tribal nexus that still exists and needs to be tackled imaginatively. Each of the eight settlements are being characterised on their means to livelihood, the influences and drivers of change, and on some cultural attributes linked to their way of life. By such profiles created on the communities, their use of the physical environment and requirements may be better understood. Translating such perspectives and ecological insights into management strategies and changes can help, perhaps to a limited extent, balance livelihood needs and conservation goals of the rainforests. annual report 31
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Page 12 and 13: Conservation education in the India
Page 14 and 15: Livestock insurance programme Under
Page 16 and 17: • Resource Ecology Group, Wagenin
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Page 20 and 21: Table 1. Long-term monitoring (1998
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Page 24 and 25: ter survey in Namdapha. In contrast
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Page 28 and 29: in determining levels of hunting, w
Page 30 and 31: P from left: An Elaeocarpus munroni
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Page 34 and 35: Survival of mammal populations in r
Page 38 and 39: Team • Principal personnel: Divya
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Page 42 and 43: through the year. As predicted ther
Page 44 and 45: A forest in weed: Impact of Lantana
Page 46 and 47: P from top: Green turtle in Agatti
Page 48 and 49: ecological processes and the impact
Page 50 and 51: • Principal scientists: Rohan Art
Page 52 and 53: Ecology and conservation of the lio
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Page 56 and 57: i FEMDIG j Friday morning discussio
Page 58 and 59: 13. Namgail, T., Bhatnagar, Y. V. &
Page 60 and 61: Peer-reviewed publications 1. Arthu
Page 62: i FINANCIAL STATEMENT j Sources of
Page 65 and 66: i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS j Individual Sup

2006-7 annual report - Nature Conservation Foundation

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