In the recent past, Jharkhand and several other eastern states ? including Orissa, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal ? have recorded a large number of elephant intrusions in villages. With elephant-related deaths and crop destruction rising, wildlife experts from affected states are working on a project which would involve radio-collaring wild elephants to help detect their precise movement.

?Until now, the idea was restricted to research. The state government now intends to introduce a satellite-based radio-collaring system ? where one or two members of a herd will be collared and tracked via satellite ? thus enabling us to keep track of the entire herd,? said a senior official of the Jharhand forest department. Once implemented, the system will help officials restrict their movement to within the forest limits.

In a workshop ? jointly organised by the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Union environment and forests ministry ? a team of experts and forest officials from affected states emphasised that the need of the hour is to minimise human-elephant conflict rather than simply conserve the species.

Paritosh Upadhyaya, Seraikela divisional forest officer (DFO), who had participated in the all-important workshop asserted that the number of elephants in our country was not dwindling and ?habitation?, rather than ?conservation?, was the only way to check the marauding elephants.

?We have around 28,000 elephants in the country in natural habitats like forest divisions and wildlife sanctuaries. Jharkhnad houses about three per cent of this number,? he said .

The many afforestation projects notwithstanding, there are still many barren patches in forest areas of Jharkhand which are inhabited by human beings. In want of food, elephants often step into the human territories.

The state forest department?s ambitious plan to establish an ?elephant corridor? through Dumka ? Chatra ? Hazaribagh - Koderma forest divisions and six forest divisions in three districts of Singhbhum - Kolhan would be a step towards restricting the movement of elephant herds outside the core forest areas.

The department also intends to undertake electric-fencing project with a Bangalore-based wildlife habitation company for the formation of elephant corridors. ?There is also a need for an intensive afforestation drive in the corridor area. We should plant grass and bamboo species, the staple food for elephants,? Upadhyaya added.

With heated allegations levelled by some states against others ? for instance, representatives from Chhatisgarh said their state does not have a single elephant and intruders from Jharkhand were destroying their crops killing their people ? an inter-state co-ordination committee was constituted at the workshop to monitor elephant attacks around the corridor project.

The committee decided to increase the compensation for the families of victims of elephant attacks. Similarly, compensation for crops destroyed by elephants around the fringes of the elephant corridor was also raised.

With such comprehensive projects in the pipeline, forest officials and wildlife experts hope that they will effectively reduce the number of elephant intrusions without causing any harm to the species.

Amit Gupta