By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem

The announcement by our Forest Minister a few days ago, that the State Government is seriously thinking of establishing a ‘Soft Release Centre’ for elephants that stray out of our forests and aggravate the man-animal conflict, has made some very interesting front page news.

And, it comes as a whiff of fresh air, especially to the thousands of families, like mine, that dwell on the fringes of the forest areas of the Malnad districts of our State.

It certainly means a lot to us because it is very likely to put an end to tragic incidents of conflict with wild animals, which have been becoming increasingly common in the recent past. The number of people dying or getting seriously injured in such encounters has been steadily increasing over the last ten years, which is  very distressing.

The last two years in particular have recorded the highest number of fatalities. Whether this is due to humans encroaching upon animal territory or the other way around, has been the subject of much debate and what seems right or wrong to you, depends on whether you stand with the forest denizens or with the fringe-of-the-forest dwellers.

But what is immediately necessary is to reduce if not completely eliminate such incidents of man animal-conflict and bring in some lasting peace. The Government has been trying various strategies to mitigate this problem but without much success and it is now under increasing  pressure to do something long-lasting about it.

Looking at what has been done and how it has been done, there is no disputing the fact that it has not been of much help. The grim statistics have only been becoming grimmer. And that is why all the affected people are very unhappy with the response they have been getting from the Government in tackling the problem that has made life difficult for them and the people they hire to help them with their farming activities.

The result of this stalemate is that farming activities have almost come to a standstill for planters and farmers, with their staff and they themselves hesitating to venture out of their homes, fearing for their lives.

This situation has disturbed to a great extent the economic scene in the once prosperous affected areas, with its devastating cascade effects. But this new five thousand acre ‘Elephant Eden’ which is reportedly being established within the densely forested area of the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary is bound to be exactly to the pachyderms’ likings because it will not be any different from their home territory.

In fact, it is very likely to be even better, because the Government proposes to fill it liberally with bamboo, grass and all kinds of fruit bearing trees like jamun and jackfruit which are the favourites of elephants. It was the absence of these sources of food in our reserve forests and their plentiful presence in the adjoining cultivated lands that has been the main reason for these helplessly hungry beasts from straying out of their home habitat.

A thought should have been given to replenishing in regular phases, the now almost completely wiped-out bamboo, keeping in mind the fact that it dies completely every twelve years or so. In addition to this, if measures had been taken to introduce different kinds of grasses and fruit bearing trees across all our forests, the problem would never have occurred in the first place.

Given sufficient food to eat, water to drink and also to slosh and roll in and enough rough and gnarled tree trunks to scratch its back against, which elephant would think of leaving its forest home? Do think about it.

But, sadly, over the past one century or so, the focus of our authorities somehow has been only on promoting the plantation of teak in almost all our forests and the reason for this kind of monoculture is very unclear. Teak may be very valuable timber but with its  out-of-reach foliage, it is of no use whatsoever to herbivorous animals.

Thankfully, although very late, common sense seems to have made sense and the present proposal is very likely to yield positive results.

Since the Government is also thinking of effectively fencing this elephant sanctuary to prevent its more adventurous inmates from straying out, peace may prevail between man and beast!

But only time will tell if   this experiment is going to succeed and the much bigger question is whether the Government’s grand plan itself   is going to see the light of the day!

e-mail: [email protected]