The Forest Department, which does not have enough staff to handle the human-elephant conflict in the district, has engaged about 100 local young men to help manage the task.
The youth are part of rapid response teams (RRT) active in Sakleshpur, Alur, and Yeslur ranges. In the last one year that the youth have been involved, officers have noticed considerable improvement in man-animal conflict.
Those selected for the job are mostly in the age group of 21 and 30, and they are well aware of the area, the local people.
“Our first job in the morning is to find out where the elephants are,” said Ashok of Bosmanahalli in Alur taluk, a member of RRT.
By 6 a.m., they start gathering information about the herd’s location in the area allotted to them. Considering the previous day’s location of the animals, they contact their friends and villagers nearby and inform the same to the officers, before reaching the spot.
“If we notice elephants in a coffee plantation, we reach out to the owner or workers well in advance so that they avoid working in that area for the day. If the elephants are moving towards a human habitat, we drive them back to a nearby forest area,” said Mr. Ashok.
The teams have been trained by senior officers of the Forest Department on the behaviour of elephants, ways to avoid man-animal conflict, how to drive them back into forests, and how to communicate with the public.
“Handling the people is important. They get agitated over damage caused to their crop. We have to convince them and take their cooperation in finishing the task,” said Punith of Konnur in Sakleshpur, also a member of RRT.
The team members, who have to be physically fit, get a camouflage uniform, shoes, a bag, and other essential items as part of the job. The department also gives them a salary as per the wage policy. The members said they get an insurance facility, besides provident fund.
Each team, consisting of four members, has been assigned four to five villages to manage. The team, besides handling conflict, records the presence of elephants on a mobile application.
“The teams record the number of elephants they site, the location, details of the complaints received, and how it got resolved, on the app. We use the information to map the movement of elephants and plan our future strategies,” said Sivaram Babu, Deputy Conservator of Forests.
Between December 2017 and March 2018, there were three deaths due to elephants in the district.
“From March to date, there were two deaths. We are hopeful that this initiative will yield positive results,” said the DFO.
A jumbo problem
Farmers of Alur and Sakleshpur taluks have often staged protests against the Forest Department, blaming it for repeated incidents of crop damage due to elephants. The department also finds it difficult to handle the problem.
Even with the rapid response teams, it is difficult to protect the crops. “It is harvest time in paddy fields, now. This is the time when elephants do not get anything else in the forest area to eat. They visit paddy fields in the night,” said Vinod Krishnan, the research affiliate of Nature Conservation Foundation. He is doing research on human-elephant conflicts in the district.
If RRTs try to drive elephants from a paddy field, they will end up visiting a neighbouring one.
“Elephants do not require a path. They create a way wherever they go. It is difficult to stop crop damage given the number of elephants moving around in our area. The best we can do is to provide compensation for farmers at the earliest,” said V.S. Mohana, Range Forest Officer of Sakleshpur.
The department provides ₹200 per coffee plant damaged and for paddy it is ₹1,240 per quintal. The amount given is meagre considering the effort and investment put in by farmers. The farmers are demanding higher compensation and also release of the dues.
In the current financial year, the compensation amount provided in Sakleshpur range itself has been around ₹25 lakh. “We require another ₹40 lakh to clear dues related to crop compensation,” said Sivaram Babu, Deputy Conservator of Forests.
