’Three States should come together for elephant translocations in Nilgiris biosphere’
The Hindu
UDHAGAMANDALAM
The recent attempt to unsuccessfully translocate and rehabilitate a “problem elephant,” as described by the State forest department, has highlighted the need for better cooperation between the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka when releasing elephants in the tri-junction area of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR).
The elephant in question, Pandalur Makhna-2 (PM2), had briefly made a foray away from the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) and into neighboring Wayanad when political pressure forced the Kerala forest department’s hand in capturing the animal.
Pressure mounted on the forest department after the elephant was captured on CCTV camera pushing down a man in Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad. Soon afterwards, orders were passed to capture the elephant and turn it into a captive elephant, which many conservationists feel was “unjustified.” PM2 was released in MTR, which is flanked on two sides by the Bandipur Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Karnataka and Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala and the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR), Nilgiris and Gudalur forest divisions on the other.
A conservationist working in the landscape, said releasing elephants in this area was particularly tricky due to the jurisdictions of local forest departments in the three states. “If an elephant captured in Tamil Nadu is released here, forest departments of Karnataka and Kerala will actively chase away the elephant from their ranges, limiting the availability of its habitat. Moreover, if the elephant enters the neighboring state, pressure mounts from political parties to capture the animal, which is what has happened with PM2,” said the conservationist.
N. Mohanraj, a Nilgiris-based conservationist who has assisted the Tamil Nadu forest department in keeping tabs on translocated elephants in the past stated that a joint committee could be formed involving forest department officials and experts from all three states that can be consulted when an elephant is relocated to the landscape. “This will ensure that all three forest departments can share information on behavioral patterns of the animal in question, and can come up with strategies to mitigate negative interactions between newly translocated tuskers and local residents,” he said.
In the recent past, the forest department has had mixed results in relocating elephants into the MTR. In 2020, a tusker released into Sathyamangalam after being captured in Hosur died after suffering a fall while acclimatizing to his new habitat in MTR. Elephants released in MTR have also been captured by the forest department in Karnataka, while there have also been a few success stories like that of Vinayaga, an elephant captured in Coimbatore, which has not had any serious negative interactions with people since its release.
Tarsh Thekaekara, the founder of the Shola Trust, said that translocations need to be undertaken right at the start when a particular elephant starts having negative interactions with people.