Valparai forest dept targets zero life loss, use of tech tools

COIMBATORE: The forest department of Tamil Nadu is taking concerted efforts to ensure zero human casualties due to elephant attacks as the migratory season of the jumbos is coming up.

As elephants march into Valparai plateau from neighbouring Kerala with the start of migration season, the department is gearing up to avoid untoward incidents. The last human death due to an elephant attack was reported on 4 June, 2021. In the past decade, 1991 to 2021, around 49 people have lost their lives putting the forest department in tender hooks.

“Since June 2021 Valparai has recorded zero casualties due to efforts taken by the forest department. This year too, with the start of migration season, we are continuing with our proven strategy of real time tracking of elephants to prevent conflicts. Every year, around 150 to 200 elephants move into the hills from neighbouring states. Besides the presence of numerous resident elephants, fresh herds have started to arrive,” said D Venkatesh, Valparai Forest Ranger.

The forest department attributed the scientific study undertaken by the department to understand herd’s behaviour, movement and other traits to prevent human casualties. “Multiple strategies have been evolved based on data collected to tackle the problem. Besides alerting people in advance about movement of wild elephants, the early warning system has been effective in sending bulk SMS to people. The migratory elephant’s arrival usually begins by mid July, when Valparai is lush with green fodder due to copious rains. Elephant arrivals peak in October and November and will till February next year,” he added.

The forest officer told DT Next that their success lies in restricting movement of people during conflict prone odd hours, rather than elephants. “Also, it has been a routine for elephants to target Public Distribution Shops. As a precaution, the shops have been directed to evacuate the stocks in advance to prevent any loss. All the vulnerable shops have been given protection by the forest department,” Venkatesh said.

Ganesh Raghunathan, senior programme manager of Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), who had been working on elephant conflict mitigation in Valparai over the last decade said that no human life loss was lost in the past two years even though elephant’s deaths have been reported “Most of the human-elephant conflicts happened due to unexpected encounters. Once the movement of elephants is known, the people will get an opportunity to save their lives. Therefore, as part of conflict mitigation, elephant movements were published in local cable TV channels,” he said.

Besides time-tested methods like creating awareness, the use of technology has also played a major role in averting conflicts, he said. “When mobile networks improved, an early warning system was developed to send bulk messages on elephant movement to the public. Currently there are around 5,000 subscribers under this alert mechanism. For the benefit of those who couldn’t read SMS, voice calls were introduced in 2015. Alert lights operated by the public garnered better response on the movement of elephants and proved to be an effective tool,” he added.