Man-animal conflicts to rise as food sources dry up

Chennai: The year 2018 will see more human deaths due to the man animal conflict and the free ranging elephants in western districts have started straying into residential areas due to the drying up of grass, a major source of fodder for elephants.

Foresters attached to all the tiger reserves in the state are witnessing deficit in rainfall for the past two months.

“The grass inside the core jungle areas has dried up due to frost and there is no rainfall in catchment area of all the streams originating in Nilgiri biosphere,” said a senior wildlife official. This trend has started affecting the migration pattern of pachyderms and already TN has recorded four deaths due to elephants, three in Krishnagiri and one in Gudalur, the official confirmed. 

Further the quality of forests is an issue in TN due to the increased activities related to mining, tea estates and construction activities.

Elephants in Valparai and Manjolai are also frequenting the settlement areas, the official added. “As per the assessment of the Forest Survey of India (India State of Forest Report, 2015), the forest cover of the State is 26,345 sq. km. constituting 20.25 per cent of the state’s geographical area. The forest cover has slightly increased due to tree cover but the quality of forest has deteriorated and there is no official assessment on the subject,” said a senior biologist with the state forest department.

According to regional meteorological centre four districts, Theni, Nilgiris, Tirunelveli and Krishnagiri that houses the crucial elephant corridor for jumbos in the state are now facing deficit rainfall with the deficit ranging above 85 per cent. In case of Krishnagiri, no rain was recorded during the month of January. The state for the month of January recorded 65 per cent deficit rainfall drying up the seasonal rivers.

“All the rivers including Moyar, Manimtuhar, Guntar, Vaigai and the perennial Thamirabharani have started losing their flow and Cauvery resembles a stream. This is the status in February and its alarming”, a forester said. “For the current year (2017-18) the compensation for the wildlife human animal conflict has been fixed with compensation and schemes at an outlay of '5.30 crores,” an official source said, when contacted.