In Frames | Treetop watch

Farmers in Assam devise ways to protect their crops from raiding elephant herds, as wildlife habitats shrink and human-animal conflicts rise

Assam has more than 5,700 elephants, the highest number after Karnataka in India. A few of them get orphaned every year primarily due to human-animal conflict and natural calamities. Sadly, the human-elephant conflict is on the rise in Assam. Dwindling habitats across the State have pushed elephants into an increasingly hostile relationship with humans sharing the same land. The pachyderms venture out close to human settlements and damage farms and property, and, sometimes, even attack people.

The frequency of encounters with elephants is more for the people of central Assam that has a peculiar landscape with small patches of forests interspersed with paddy fields and other valuable crops. The pachyderms visit the region for about four months every year, their numbers and duration of stay is ever increasing.

To protect their crops, the farmers here have built tongi ghor or tree houses high up in the branches near their agricultural fields. Equipped with torches and a few firecrackers, they spend the night keeping watch over their crops and to deter wandering wild elephant herds.

If the villagers don’t drive the elephants out, they would have to starve as a raiding elephant herd can damage crops.