Mumbai While the state government has dished out over ₹12 crore as compensation to farmers facing crop losses due to the movement of wild elephants in and around Dodamarg taluka in Sindhudurg district since 2002, the forest department has started to draft a ‘long-term mitigation plan’ at the instruction of the state board for wildlife (SBWL) to prevent human-wildlife conflict.
Kishor Rithe, wildlife conservationist and SBWL member, said, “Elephants were not present in south Maharashtra earlier, but since 2002 onwards, they have been gradually extending their range into Maharashtra from adjoining Karnataka. Initially, the state forest department attempted to push them back, but this did not work. The jumbos kept returning. It was only around 2016 that Maharashtra accepted their presence and made steps to accommodate them. Finally, in 2020, the Tillari Conservation Reserve was notified as a haven for them.”
However, between February and July each year, herds of wild pachyderms make a temporary migration from this notified forest area toward Ajara and Chandgad tehsils in the adjacent Kohlapur district, via the Sawantwadi-Dodamarg wildlife corridor, passing swathes of agricultural and horticultural plantations en route.
“They cause huge losses to agricultural crops. As compared to the loss, the compensation granted is much less. Hence, there is a need to increase the amount of compensation. A long-term permanent solution to the man-wild elephant conflict is required,” the SBWL noted in their 18th meeting earlier this month.
Recent research from experts at the Department of Environmental Sciences at University of Mumbai, the College of Forestry at Dr BS Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth in Ratnagiri, and the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, shows that the colonisation of the south Maharashtra-Karnataka border by Asian jumbos has been predominantly marked by elephant crop raiding events at Sindhudurg, where the local community had no previous experience of living with the pachyderms. The researchers identified 244 villages (out of the district’s 748) which had been affected by this issue.
A senior official with the state wildlife department, who was present at the meeting, said on the condition of anonymity, “The elephants are here to stay. Though there have not been any instances of violent conflict between the herds and villagers in recent years, this is something we have to pre-emptively plan to mitigate since their population is seemingly increasing. Since the Karnataka forest department has more experience dealing with these pachyderms, we will be enlisting their help along with independent experts in drafting this mitigation plan.”