Elephant-Human Conflict In The Western Duars Of Northern West Bengal, India

 

Table of Contents

The Western Duars and the Elephant corridor 3

Zones in the Corridor 3

The conflict 4

What is the urgency of studying the situation? 4

Causes of the conflict 6

1. Habitat fragmentation 6

2. Indiscriminate killing or injuring of elephants in Nepal 7

3. Army establishments 7

4. The Siliguri-Alipurduar railway track 7

The railway system 7

Elephant casualties on the track 8

Seasonal mortality records 9

Hour-wise mortality records 9

High risk zones 9

Current conflict management practices 10

LATEST CONFLICT DATA 11

What needs to be done? 14

Conclusion 15

Works Cited 16

Annexures 17

Annexure 1: List of Elephants killed on Railway Tracks in North Bengal 17

Annexure 2: Following is the list of accidents occurred in and outside the recommended zones 19

 

Elephant-Human Conflict in the Western Duars of North Bengal

The Western Duars and the Elephant corridor

The Duars region at the foothills of the eastern Himalayas is a vast swathe of 8,800 sq km terai forests and plains divided by the Sankosh river into two parts, Eastern and Western Duars. Both were ceded by Bhutan to the British at the end of the Bhutan war (1864-'65). The Western Duars lies in the northern West Bengal state and is a lowland belt linking the Himalaya and the plains region. The Western Duars is an important centre of the tea industry. The word Duars (literally, "doors") is derived from the existence of several passes that lead from the region into the Lesser Himalayas (Hoiberg & Ramchandani, 2000).

The Asian elephant, in spite of being a shy animal avoiding human contact, needs a huge amount of food and water as also a large living space. It migrates vast distances just in a quest to fulfill its basic needs of food, shelter and mating. Also, when it is peak monsoon in Assam, the elephants migrate westwards in search of less wet areas as excessive water festers germs on their feet. It is this particular behaviour which brings them in contact with the humans without any instigation on anyone's part. The incidence of contact with humans today has increased tremendously, especially in the Western Duars region due to the region being part of a corridor elephants make use of. This corridor, extending from the Sankosh river at the border of Assam to the Mechi river at the border of Nepal is particularly vulnerable for the elephants as well as the people living there as the corridor is not a contiguous stretch of forests as it should ideally be, but is rather many stretches of disjoint forests interspersed manifold with villages. The obvious result is increased human-elephant conflict.

Zones in the Corridor

The elephant corridor has been divided into four vulnerable zones (also accorded the vulnerability status from the MoEF in December 2007):

* Mechi - Teesta

* Teesta - Diana

* Diana - Torsa

* Torsa - Sankosh

The Teesta - Diana stretch, falling under the JPG Division, is infamous for the most number of elephant deaths while the Torsa - Sankosh stretch covering the JWS and the BTR has the least incidence of elephant deaths. This is in direct proportion to the amount of habitat fragmentation in the region, a fact which will be discussed in detail later in the report.

The conflict

As per the last national elephant census conducted in 2005, there were between 25,000 to 28,000 elephants in India, of which some 350 were concentrated in the Western Duars region. Though this is a minuscule 1.5% of the total population, these elephants have been historically blemished with an average of 2.5 human deaths per elephant, probably the highest rate anywhere in Asia where elephants exist (Bist, 1998). And after the latest census in the region on 23rd April 2007 (the results are not yet out), the population is estimated to have jumped to around 400 (Anand, 2007). Though this is not biologically possible in such a short time, the number of migrants from Assam is expected to have increased. The result - even more conflict between the gentle creatures and the humans.

What is the urgency of studying the situation?

Elephant-human conflict is not a random event in time in these parts. There is an inherent loss of life - both of humans and elephants - and also destruction, at regular intervals during the year, more particularly during the dhaan or harvest season coinciding with the period after monsoons. A couple of news reports will better clarify the point:

1. Elephant electrocuted in north Bengal

From correspondents in West Bengal, India, 04:01 PM IST

An elephant was electrocuted in a tea garden in north Bengal Wednesday after it came in contact with a live wire, forest officials said.

According to the officials, the incident occurred in the morning when a herd comprising 15 to 20 elephants entered a tea garden at Jalpaiguri's Malbazar, around 600 km from Kolkata, in search of food. One of the elephants, which strayed from the herd, came in contact with a live wire and died on the spot. Forest officials said initial investigations revealed the elephant was electrocuted when it tried to touch the live wire with its trunk. The elephant's body will be sent for a post-mortem examination to confirm the cause of its death, officials said. Eleven elephants were run over by trains in north Bengal in the last two years. On July 25, a four-year-old elephant calf was knocked down by a train in Gulma Forest Range in Darjeeling district On July 22, an elephant's body was found inside the same forest range with multiple injury marks caused