Community role in Human Elephant Conflict mitigation  

Rising incidents of wild elephant herds raiding paddy fields are a seasonal recurrence in Assam. The escalating crisis of Human Elephant Conflict (HEC) has deepened beyond statistics of crop loss, death and injury of humans in elephant depredation and death and injury of elephants due to poisoning, electrocution or falling in trenches dug by humans. For farmers grappling with the HEC for a prolonged period, the crop loss due to elephant raids in the paddy fields compounds the loss of standing crop due to floods and extreme weather. The task of securing the elephant corridors for their safe passage has remained unfinished as primary efforts of conflict resolution continue to be incident-specific – chasing away elephant herds entering a village, raiding standing crops or rescuing an elephant trapped or injured in human habitat. While experts recommended prioritising landscape-level conflict mitigation, the on-ground appears patchy, mirroring the harsh realities of more and more safe elephant corridors being reduced to patches of fragmented forests. The launching of the Gaja Mitra scheme in HEC-affected districts is a pragmatic initiative, as it focuses on community role, and therefore, holds promise, but the sustainability of the measures initiated under the scheme will depend on factors like sustainability at landscape-level transformation. The Gaja Mitra scheme envisages deployment of trained community volunteers as rapid response teams in HEC hotspots to complement the efforts of the Forest Department in monitoring movement of wild elephants and protecting standing crops and reduce negative interaction between humans and elephants. The common complaint of the residents in HEC-affected villages is the late arrival of forest staff to chase away the elephant herds raiding their crops, and Gaja Mitras are expected to bridge the gap and strengthen the community’s liaison with the forest department. The scheme emphasises smart surveillance of elephant movement through the use of artificial intelligence-powered camera traps, but the availability of the equipment and proper training in its utilisation are crucial to achieve the intended goals. Detection of real-time elephant movement, however, can significantly improve early warning systems and alert villagers to take adequate precaution. While different innovative strategies of monitoring elephant movement and issuing alerts to people have been in practice, the primary goal of such early warning is limited to protecting the human lives, properties and standing crops. Installation and operationalisation of an early warning system, however, is not a sustainable mitigation measure and remains limited to incident-specific responses and cannot prevent seasonal raids of the villages and paddy fields by wild elephant herds. The Greener Forest component in the Gaja Mitra scheme, which focuses on enriching elephant habitat to provide the elephants safe passage and food in their habitat, deserves more attention and funding support. Restoration of forest alone cannot secure the elephant corridors if encroachment of forest areas continues unabated. Forest diversion for infrastructure projects which leads to fragmentation of elephant habitat and corridors is to be carried out with strict adherence to the norms laid out by the National Board of Wildlife, but lack of transparency in infrastructure development, particularly regarding compliance, is a critical gap. Empowering the Gaja Mitras to monitor compliance of environmental norms during infrastructure project execution can address this problem and bring more transparency. Compensatory afforestation, which is to be carried out mandatorily, plays a crucial role in offsetting forest diversion, but allegations of corruption and poor survival rates continue to cloud the effectiveness of the official monitoring mechanism. Community afforestation and compensatory afforestation can significantly increase forest cover in elephant corridors, but the alignment of linear infrastructure such as highways, railway tracks, etc., needs to be taken special care in HEC-affected areas to ensure that forest diversion can be avoided or reduced. The effectiveness of the Gaja Mitra scheme can be enhanced if it is aligned with landscape-level initiatives to reduce HEC in the state. This can be possible only when planning for infrastructure development is carried out in a comprehensive manner so that alignment of highway, railway track and other infrastructure can be fixed, avoiding critical forest areas including elephant corridors. Ironically, the recommendation for landscape-level intervention is yet to get the required push by the government even though wildlife and forest experts have carried out volumes of research work on the restoration of degraded forests and elephant and other animal corridors. It is time the government starts planning the forest protection, conservation and restoration at the landscape level. Involvement of forest fringe communities in such initiatives is essential so that their outlook towards elephant movement can be shifted from viewing elephant herds as invaders to recognising them as distressed animals seeking food and shelter. Increasing the compensation for the loss of paddy and other farm produce belonging to farmers in forest fringe areas and areas along the elephant corridor is critical to shifting their outlook. Nevertheless, prioritising the community role in HEC mitigation is pivotal to a lasting solution.