The Forest Department is caught in a proverbial Catch-22 situation. While on the one hand, local residents criticised it for lack of action to mitigate negative human-elephant interactions in O’Valley in Gudalur, they have also been staging protests and preventing building materials from being brought to the area to build watch towers to mitigate negative interactions in the region.
Following a spate of negative interactions that led to the deaths of people in O’Valley recently, the department and the district administration announced that five watchtowers would be constructed in the region and anti-depredation squad members would be posted round-the-clock to monitor elephant movement and intervene.
However, residents recently began protests against the proposed watch towers and blocked a road and prevented materials from being brought to the area.
K. Sagadevan, district secretary of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and the vice-chairman of the O’Valley town panchayat, said that the residents were protesting against the setting up of two of the planned watch towers in Vattaparai and Gandhinagar.
“The residents are already restricted by rules imposed by the Forest Department on getting building materials through the check-post leading to O’Valley. We all fear that once the new watch towers are built, people will be stopped from collecting firewood, prevented from grazing cattle, and from practising agriculture,” said Mr. Sagadevan.
Local conservationists, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that O’Valley was an important elephant corridor and that continued expansion of human settlements, agriculture and unapproved buildings along migratory routes was driving conflict in these areas.
“Moreover, the region is also a hotbed for poaching, with three poaching cases registered last year, including the hunting of gaur. The local people are being pushed towards opposing the watch towers as they feel that the increased surveillance would curtail illegal buildings and encroachments,” said the conservationist.
D. Venkatesh, Conservator of Forests (Nilgiris), said the watch towers were crucial if efforts to mitigate negative human-elephant interactions were to succeed. “O’Valley is a rainfall-prone area, and staff need shelter so they can quickly reach the spots where their intervention is required. Data from the last 10 years about negative interactions in the region were analysed and the locations for the watch towers were chosen,” said Mr. Venkatesh.
He hoped that the residents would come to understand that in order to minimise negative interactions, such interventions were necessary.
Forest officials stated that ₹30 lakh was sanctioned for the construction of the watch towers. Plans for the watch towers, included stationing kumki elephants and mahouts in the region to drive away wild elephants that strayed too close to human habitations.
