The forest department has restored an elephant corridor that passes through the Ingdong tea garden in Meteli of Jalpaiguri district, marking the first such successful restoration.
The department now plans to restore more such corridors across the region to reduce human-elephant conflict.
Bhaskar JV, Chief Conservator of Forests (North), speaking at a wildlife protection programme organised by Society for Protecting Ophiofauna & Animal Rights (SPOAR), an NGO in Jalpaiguri on Saturday, said human settlements and tea estates had become major obstacles to elephant movement.
“Human settlements and tea estates pose challenges to this initiative. The forest department has proposed utilising uncultivated land within tea estates to restore these corridors,” he said.
Encroachments on the Ingdong-Meteli corridor, located between the Chapramari and Apalchand forest ranges, were cleared and a few labour quarters within the tea estate were relocated.
The department has surveyed seven traditional corridors for restoration. These include the Jaldapara-Buxa corridor through Varnobari tea garden, Jaldapara-Diana, Gorumara-Diana, Gorumara-Buxa, Central Diana-Moraghat, Moraghat-Reti and Chapramari-Apalchand corridors.
The next phase will focus on improving the Buxa-Jaldapara corridor, followed by the remaining traditional routes in phases.
Officials said elephants moving thorugh the Buxa-Jaldapara corridor currently encounter obstructions after travelling barely two to two-and-a-half kilometres, forcing them to stray into nearby habitations.
Foresters said elephant herds have historically travelled from Assam through the Sankosh river area into north Bengal using these corridors.
Tea estates, settlements, shops and other structures were constructed on these routes over the years. This has forced elephants into villages and agricultural fields, resulting in deaths, crop losses and property damage.
Bhaskar also mentioned a traditional elephant corridor near Naxalbari on the outskirts of Siliguri, saying encroachments there had severely disrupted the natural movement of herds.
Shyamarsad Ande, a wildlife expert associated with SPOAR, said there were around 16 elephant corridors across the Dooars in Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts.
“Many of these corridors are heavily obstructed. Elephant herds are abandoning traditional routes and moving through new areas, increasing incidents of human-elephant conflict,” he said.
The forest department said surveys conducted with the land and land reforms department revealed that many corridors pass through tea estates.
Restoring them would require using both cultivable and non-cultivable land, as well as relocating labour quarters and other structures.
A proposal launched two years ago to utilise uncultivable tea estate land for corridor restoration has made little progress.