Tussle With Tuskers

As the number of human population increases, the incidents of conflict between human and elephant, too, is on the rise

By A CORRESPONDENT

At a time when most of the habitat areas of the wild Asian Elephant is under threat due to internal conflicts, the protection and preservation of wild-elephant has become serious concern for wildlife conservationists in the region.

At a workshop o rganized last week by the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation in collaboration with WWF Nepal Program on ‘Human-Elephant Conflict- Lessons and Experiences from South Asia ,’ experts and stakeholders discussed different issues related to wild elephant conservation.

“The main purpose of the workshop was to share knowledge and experiences among managers, conservationists, scientists and local communities on the use and effectiveness of different mitigation measures,” said Dr. Tirtha Man Maskey, director general of the Department.

From northeast India to northeast Sri Lanka , the conflict is posing difficulties in the conservation of wild-elephants. Nepal ’s small numbers of wild-elephants living in Parsa-Wildlife Reserve and other national parks are also under threat from the conflict.

Despite their four decades of deadly ethnic conflict in north-east - the home to more than 3000 wild Asian Elephant - Sri Lankan Conservation officials have shown the way to protect the wild elephant.

With the intensification of Maoist insurgency, Nepal ’s wildlife, too, face unprecedented threat for survival. Recent rhino counting disclosed drastic reduction of number of rhinoceros in Chitwan National Park .

Not only the internal conflict is threatening their existence but also the growing human and elephant population, which has triggered the incidents of human-elephant conflict. Compared to other countries of the region, this is limited to specific areas in Nepal .

Annually, wild-elephants traveling from Indian state of Assam wreak havoc in the eastern part of Nepal . The forest in Jhapa used to be traditional corridor for the movement of wild-elephants of Indian northeastern state.

Similarly, the wild-elephants in Parsa Wildlife Reserve and Royal Shukla Wildlife Reserve in far west Nepal are in conflict with local population as they often destroy crops and houses of the local people.

Despite the sporadic incidents of conflict, human-elephant conflict is very small in Nepal compared to conflict with other wild-animals.

The corridor of wild-elephants in Nepal is now densely populated and annually the wild-elephants destroy dozens of houses, crops and kill people. “Human-Elephant conflict is emerging issue in Nepal but it is still smaller comparative to India ,” said Maskey.

Participated by conservationists, scientists and local communities, the conference, among others, helped to understand and share different mitigation measures taken by different countries of the region.

The participants of the conference also learnt about the experiences of human-elephant conflict from experts from different countries in the region and also from various human-elephant conflict research and mitigation projects being currently implemented

The participants discussed dynamics of human-conflict in relation to elephant ecology, behavior and current threats. They also shared experiences of compensation schemes as a strategy for human-elephant conflict mitigation-advantages, pitfalls and lessons. There were also special discussions on experiences of crop insurance schemes as a strategy.

As the country has been passing through a very critical phase of insurgency, Sri Lanka and India ’s experience in elephant conservation will be helpful for Nepalese to develop their own skill and expertise in mitigation sector.

As human-wildlife conflict is not going to die soon and it will remain as a major problem of the country for another few years, this kind of regional conference is going to enhance the skill and experiences of people working in this sector.