Govt eyes spice route to keep marauding elephants at bay

Growing chillies and pepper,or even capsicum,tobacco and oil seeds,in areas around elephant corridors could help keep the pachyderms away from human turf as these crops are the least palatable to them,experts consulted by the ministry have recommended.

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Crops worth crores are damaged every year by raiding herds of elephants and resolving this problem has been a high priority area for the government as it has to compensate farmers for loss of crops and often,human lives.

While measures such as forming anti-depredation squads and GPS collars for elephants have been tried across states,spicing up their meal through crops such as chillies and pepper was a new and key suggestion made at a national consultation meeting organised recently by the MoEF to examine ways to reduce growing human-animal conflict.

“We think it may be worth trying. Several experts and state governments have also suggested that cropping changes should be attempted to avoid crop damage — a very serious problem in Karnataka,Orissa and West Bengal,among other states,” S S Garbyal,additional director general (wildlife),in the MoEF,told The Indian Express.

“The problem lies in convincing farmers as chilli and pepper obviously fetch lower returns than the likes of sugarcane and rice. State governments have been asked to see if this can be attempted.”

There are an estimated 28,000 elephants in the wild in India. The levels of conflict are high in many regions but are considered to be very serious in states such as West Bengal,Assam,Orissa,Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

The magnitude of the problem can be gauged from the fact that more than half the expenditure incurred by Project Elephant is for human-elephant conflict mitigation. Another 15 to 20 per cent is spent on paying ex-gratia and compensation for loss of property or crops.

Switching to crops Elephants don’t relish is not without precedent.

In Zimbabwe,the Elephant Pepper Development Trust is promoting cultivation of red pepper and red chilli and is training people to grow and make chilli ropes,chilli oil and chilli bombs. Unpalatable crops are planted in the buffer zone in several parts of Africa which makes elephants wary of moving ahead.

Chilli fences,besides electrical fences,have been used in some pockets in India’s northeast as well in collaboration with the WWF.

Dr B S Bonal,member-secretary,Central Zoo Authority,said the proposal should definitely be tried,in a small way to start with.

But the solution may not be palatable to all farmers as changing cropping patterns is unlikely to make financial sense,some experts said.

Conservationist Sanjay Gubbi,who has worked extensively in the area of mitigation of human-elephant conflict feels changing cropping patterns is far too impractical.

“Cropping patterns are largely driven by local economics,food patterns,and farmers might find it unfeasible to change the current patterns,” Gubbi said.

“Farmers will always rely on crops that would fetch them higher returns despite running the risk of conflict. Also,how much of the area can be asked to change cropping patterns? For instance,elephants are known to go up to 9.81 km outside the Nagarahole national park,which encompasses about 470 sq km. This area would involve agricultural land of thousands of farmers. Can we ask all farmers in this large area to change cropping patterns?” he asked.

He cites the example of Karnataka where 1,078 villages were affected by elephant conflict during 2008-11.

“It would now have increased as elephants have moved into new non-elephant habitats such as Kolar district. It would be impractical to change cropping patterns in such a large number of villages. Similarly,elephants damaged about 54 crop types,can all these crops be changed?” he said.

Gubbi instead recommends a combination of time-tested approaches such as implementation and effective maintenance of physical barriers – elephant-proof trench and electric fences – in an ecologically sound manner,community guarding,community maintenance of physical barriers and vigilance by farmers that can bring down conflict.