A wild Asian Elephant in Western Ghats, South India
Veerappan may be long gone, but poaching still tops the list as the major reason for elephant mortality during the last three decades in the Nilgiris. Trying to untangle the hidden patterns of elephant mortality in the Nilgiris reported during the 33 year period between 1979 to 2011, a new study reveals that 40 percent of the total elephant deaths from the region during the period were due to poaching.
Unexpected elephant raids are the worst nightmare of a
forest-fringe village in India. But what if there is somebody to text you in
advance that the jumbos are on the way? Researchers in Tamil Nadu claimed to
have developed an intrusion detection system which can text forest officials an
early warning if an elephant heard is moving towards a village.
According to S. J. Sugumar of Coimbatore Institute of Technology and R. Jayaparvathy of SSN College of Engineering Chennai, who developed the system, it functions by tracking the movement
of the elephants electronically with the help of the vibrations on the ground
created by the footfall of the animal. The system, according to the
researchers, has to be implemented in “specific pockets identified based on the
analytical results along the forest border areas where the elephants can
intrude from the forest into human habitation.” It consists of a geophone
string, threshold comparator with amplification module, embedded micro
controller, GSM, and the power supply.
A research article published in
Current Science journal about the system says that the footfall of the elephant
produces a vibration in the ground which is sensed by the geophones that are
buried underground. After sensing the vibration, the geophone will generate an
electrical signal which will be amplified and compared with a set threshold
value which is based on that generated by the footfall of a single elephant. If
it exceeds the threshold, the system is designed to trigger the embedded
controller to send a warning SMS with the help of the GSM transceiver to the
forest officials. The geophones with a range of 120 square meters can cover a
large area when used as a string of five geophones, claim the researchers.
Impact on
human-elephant conflicts
Geo-phone as part of the elephant intrusion detection system
(Image Courtesy: Current Science)
The study was carried out in Coimbatore forest division
which has recorded a number of cases of human-elephant conflict. According to
official figures, there were 680 incidents of elephant intrusion into human
habitat in 2011 while it was 844 in 2010 and 560 in 2009. In 2011, 14 people
were killed in elephant attack while the figure was 16 in 2010 and 11 in 2009.
In the conflict, there was a reported death of 10 elephants in 2011, 11 in 2010
and 12 in 2009. The implementation of the system is expected to help bring down
the number of incidents of unexpected elephant raids and resulting causalities
on both sides.
However, there are chances that other heavy animals walking
over the buried geophones trigger false alarms. To avoid this
confusion, the researchers have identified four different types of possible
responses and have designed the system in such a way that false alarms are not
triggered. According to the researchers, on field trials, the performance of
the system to differentiate the vibrations generated by different species of
animals was 91.25 percent. Analyzing the migration data of elephants in an area can be well used to predict the possibilities of
intrusion almost precisely, say the researchers.
An Indian Elephant (Elephas maximus indicus),crossing a patrolling path at Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, Karnataka, India
Constructing roads through protected areas will severely
affect the wild life, reveals a recent study conducted on the Mysore- Mananthavady
Highway which passes through Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, a major home for the big
striped cat in South India. According to
the study, the road has caused certain large mammals to desert the adjoining
areas while making some others more prone to be victims of road kill.
Comparing an abandoned segment with another one regularly used by the vehicles within a 20 KM distance, it was found that large mammals like Elephant (Elephas maximus indicus), Gaur(Bos garus) , Chital (Axis axis), Wild pig (Sus scrofa) and Tiger tend to avoid the road edges restricting themselves to other forest areas.
This does not mean that animals don’t usually use that
place, but just avoid it. The study has found that 681 animal trails have
intersected the portion of the road under study. However, the mean density of
animal trails on the unused segment was 40 percent more than that in the used segment,
indicating that the road is restricting natural wild life movement.
Swelling vehicle traffic
The study observed a startling 22 fold increase in vehicular
traffic on this road which connects Wayanad district of Kerala with Mysore
district of Karnataka, in seven years despite a traffic ban in the night.
According to Sanjay
Gubbi, H. C. Poornesha and M. D. Madhusudan from Nature Conservation Foundation
and Wild life Conservation Society who conducted the study, vehicle
density was 50 per day in 2003, when traffic was allowed all the 24 hours. Now
it has reached a massive 553 a day despite a 12 hour traffic ban.
Roads thrills but kills
Roads passing through Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka
However, it was also found that large mammals like Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) are not
repelled by roads. This is due to the presence of grass and tender leaves in
the road edges due to the routine clearance by the forest department, says the study.
The routine clearance along road edges creates micro
habitats which attracts many herbivores, making them more prone to road kills.
According to experts, this is the major reason why herbivores like Sambar deer,
chital, mouse deer (Moschiola meminna), black naped hare (Lepus
nigricollis) and small Indian civet (Viverricula
indica) becomes the top names in road kills near protected areas.
Better EIAs and measures
The findings of the study call for immediate measures to
check over speeding on such roads which is a major reason for animal death from
vehicle collision. It also demands effective implementation of scientifically
designed animal crossing structures across such roads.
But above all, the need of the hour is to conduct long-term environment
impact assessments even after completion of developmental initiatives to find
out unforeseen impacts. If we hurry again under the false notion of development
to become a global power, we may commit irreversible mistakes to the future generations
by swiping away the remaining biodiversity of our nation.
Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) at Nagarhole Tiger Reserve (Video)
