Fragmentation of forests led to elephants straying

The search for a larger patch of forests to make a home range may have led the two sub-adult males into the heart of Mysore, a city known more for its placid, caparisoned Dasara elephants.

Wednesday's rampage by the tusker — the other was a makhana which hid itself — left a security guard in a narrow bylane dead. Collateral damage included two dead cows, four injured passersby and a series of trashed vehicles.

While some elephant experts say that the fragmentation of forest land and non-availability of good and large patches of forests could be the reason for straying, it is also believed that sub-adult male elephants move out of the family herd to establish their own home range.

FORAGING FOR FOOD

“Social organisation of elephants is such that sub-adults wander on their own. In this case, they may have come in search of crops and may have deviated from their path,” Raman Sukumar of Centre for Ecological Sciences at Indian Institute of Science told The Hindu. It is their natural behaviour to migrate, but unfortunately they went into the city, he added.

In the past, Prof. Sukumar pointed out, males have been found to have traversed long distances for home range. “Just a few months ago, one was found near Chitradurga and it had traversed from near Bannerghatta. Similarly, years ago, another male, which had traversed around 300 km from near Hosur/ Bannerghatta forests, was captured on the East Coast,” he said.

FRAGMENTATION

Declining quality forest cover, fragmentation of forests and encroachment of elephant corridors could all be reasons for wild elephants straying into human habitations. “Such incidents will only increase in future unless urgent and drastic measures are put in place to preserve the rapidly declining forest cover,” said wildlife biologist and elephant expert Ajay Desai.

MAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT

“Due to fragmentation of forests, elephants are living in patches that may not be of good quality or too small or medium size to make them their home range,” he added.

“Sometimes, they wander in search of a better place, and come in conflict with human beings,” he said.

SEVERAL INSTANCES

He pointed out that there are instances of elephants straying into villages near national parks and people being trampled. He said that “because it came to Mysore, it has become big news, though we have been raising these issues for years.” Meanwhile, addressing the issue of the elephants straying from the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, B.C. Chettiappa, Assistant Director of Veterinary Sciences, said a distance of 35 km is no big deal for elephants. When they mean business, they can easily cover this distance in less than three hours, he said.

 

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Tropical forests better managed

The world's tropical forests are better managed now than five years ago, concludes a survey by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO).

The area under some form of sustainable management plan increased by about 50% over the period; but about 90% of tropical forest lacks protection.

The most significant improvements have been seen in Africa, the report says.

The ITTO is a pro-sustainable use trade body whose 60 member countries account for 90% of the global timber trade.

Its current report - Status of Tropical Forest Management 2011 - analysed data from 33 important forest countries, including the really big players such as Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia.

"The top line is that the area under sustainable forest management has gone up from 36 to 53 million hectares in five years," said Duncan Poore, one of the report's authors and a former head of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"That's a substantial improvement, but there's still a long way to go," he told BBC News.

"Forests scheduled by ITTO members as permanent forest cover 760m hectares - so what's under sustainable management is less than 10%, which is disappointing."

Deforestation 'to continue'
Countries that have made major increases in protection include Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Peru and Venezuela.

However, satellite observations recently revealed an alarming escalation in deforestation in Brazil, indicating that loss of forest in some areas of a country can continue even as protection increases in other areas.

"My personal view is that it's more important to make sure that countries decide what forest they want to keep and for what purpose, and look after that satisfactorily, than to weep crocodile tears over deforestation," said Dr Poore.

"The reality is that in most countries, deforestation is going to continue. But if they look after areas that are really important ecologically, that may not be a problem."

The ITTO report makes clear that pressures leading to forest clearance are continuing to rise, with the expansion of the world's population, growing use of raw materials such as wood, and increasing demand for land on which to settle and grow food.

The big hope of many in the conservation community is that rich countries may soon start funding poorer ones to protect forests in the interests of absorbing carbon dioxide and curbing climate change.

But despite years of discussion, establishment of an international mechanism for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) remains elusive, largely because of wider disagreements within the UN climate convention.

Bringing a REDD scheme into existence would, said Dr Poore, be "very important" for the long-term health of tropical forests.

 

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