An Overview of the Human- Elephant Conflicts in Southern India Alanna Elder and Anne Nicole Reed ElephantElephant By Thangaraj KumaravalSome Rights ReservedBy Thangaraj KumaravalSome Rights Reserved

Background Information ●India: 60% of the Asian Elephant population ●Placed on Endangered Species list in 1986: threats? ●5% of original range Since 1972 (-) 65% lowland forest ●Increasing contact More conflicts since 1980’s ●Western Ghats Misty Green Tea SlopesMisty Green Tea Slopes Reji Some Rights ReservedRejiSome Rights Reserved

WaterResourcesDevelopmentAtlasofIndia_NAT MO(12) Indiawaterportal.org Some Rights Reserved

Crops in India ●Crop Production at an all time high (since Green Revolution) ●1,955 crop loss incidences of which 99.9% were due to elephant activity ●Farmers switch to less desirable crops

Elephants or People ●Hundreds of deaths due to the conflict ●People die protecting their crops ●Elephants die due to electrocution, trains, retaliation

SOLUTIONS

●Electric fences are used to keep elephants from damaging crops ●These are limited in India ●Many elephants die due to electrocution Electric Fences Photo credit: Michael Allen Smith; flickr.com some rights reservedMichael Allen Smith

Noise Techniques ●Farmers tend to their crops with noise ●Firecrackers ●Tree stands Photo credit: CGIAR Climate; some rights reserved

●Many farmers use trenches ●Trenches are 3 ft wide and 5 ft deep ●Resulted in decreased deaths and incidents Trenches Photo credit: Fraboof (creative commons) some rights reserved

Koonkies ●Trained Elephants ●Used for work ●Used for deterring wild elephants Photo credit: Delphinidaesy ;flickr.com some rights reservedDelphinidaesy

Policy ●Environmental legislation since 1970s ●Project Elephant and the ETF report ●Ministries

Policy Con’t ●Realms of policy: ○ Compensation ○ Physical and virtual barriers ○ Land use ●Challenges to management ○ Funding/staffing ○ Competing interests ○ Biology CoimbatoreCoimbatore S.Sriirama Santosh Some Rights ReservedS.Sriirama Santosh Some Rights Reserved DSCN1221DSCN1221 Orbis Unum Some Rights ReservedOrbis UnumSome Rights Reserved

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu Coimbatore India elephant Ganesha Hindu deityCoimbatore India elephant Ganesha Hindu deity globetrotter_rodrigo Some rights reservedglobetrotter_rodrigo Some rights reserved CoimbatoreKrish SubramaniamSome rights reservedBrick Kiln Tamil NaduBrick Kiln Tamil Nadu Pete Barker Some rights reservedPete BarkerSome rights reserved

Questions? elephant slideJ.D. FalkSome rights reserved

Useful Links Elephant Task Force Report: information/ETF_REPORT_FINAL.pdf information/ETF_REPORT_FINAL.pdf Wildlife Trust of India Elephant Corridor Project: Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (Project Elephant): 4http://envfor.nic.in/division/introduction- 4 Tamil Nadu Forest Department:

Further Reading Baskaran et. al. (2013). Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift Für Säugetierkunde. doi: /j.mambio Gubbi, S. (2012). Biological Conservation. doi: /j.biocon Karanth, K. K., Gopalaswamy, A. M., Prasad, P. K., & Dasgupta, S. (2013). Biological Conservation. doi: /j.biocon SUKUMAR, R. (2006). International Zoo Yearbook, 40(1), 1-8. doi: /j Thuppil, V., & Coss, R. (2012). Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy. doi: /

References Bal, P., Nath, C. D., Nanaya, K. M., Kushalappa, C. G., & Garcia, C. (2011). Environmental Management.. doi: /s Bloom, D.E. (2011). Dissertation, Harvard School of Public Health. Retreived from: content/uploads/2012/08/Bloom_PopulationdynamicsiIndia.pdf. Campos-Arceiz, A., & Blake, S. (2011). Acta Oecologica, 37(6), 542. Davies et. al Conservation Letters. doi: /j X x Gubbi et al.2013 Biodiversity and Conservation. doi: /s x Ministry of Environment and Forests (2010) Gajah: securing the future for elephants in India. Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF), Government of India, New Delhi Ramkumar et al (2014). International Research Journal of Biological Sciences 3(8): Reddy et al.(2013). Ecological Engineering, 60, Sukumar, R. (1995). Elephant raiders and rogues. New York: Natural History Magazine, Inc. SUKUMAR, R. (2006). International Zoo Yearbook, 40(1), 1-8. doi: /j Singh et al.,2002 envis/newsletter/issue2 Choudhury et al.,2014 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version Fernando, P. et al, 2008 Retrieved from: annual report, 2008 Retrieved from: