National Green Tribunal
National Green Tribunal Southern Zone vs Ministry Of Environment Forest And ... on 11 June, 2021
Bench: K Ramakrishnan, K. Satyagopal
Item No.08:
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
SOUTHERN ZONE, CHENNAI
Original Application No. 77 of 2020 (SZ)
(Through Video Conference)
IN THE MATTER OF:
Suo Motu based on the News Item in
The New Indian Express Newspaper
Dt. 03.06.2020, "Kerala elephant tragedy:
Another Jumbo suspected to have been killed
in similar fashion"
...Applicant(s)
Versus
1. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Rep. by its Secretary,
Indira Paryavaran Bhawan,
Jorbagh Road,
New Delhi- 110003
2. Additional Chief Secretary of Forest and Wildlife
Room No. 660, 3rd Floor, South Block,
Secretariat, Thiruvanathapuram- 695 001
3. Principle Secretary,
Department of Environment & Climate Change
Room No. 406, 4th Floor Annex II, Sceretariat,
Thiruvanathapuram- 695 001
4. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests
(Wildlife) & Chief Wildlife Warden,
Forest Headquarters, Vazhuthacaud,
Thiruvanathapuram- 695 014
5. Wildlife Crime Control Bureau,
Southern Zone,
Rep by its Assistant Director,
C3, Ground Floor, Opp. CSEZ,
Kakkanadu, Cochin- 682037
6. Wildlife Warden,
Silent Valley Division,
Mukkali P.O. Mannarkkad,
Palakkad, Kerala- 678582
1
7. Divisional Forest Officer,
Mannarkkad,
Divisional Forest Office,
Kerala- 678582
8. Divisional Forest Officer
Punalur,
Divisional Forest Office,
Panamkuttymal, Punalur,
Kerala- 691305
...Respondent(s)
For Appllicant (s): Suo motu
For Respondent(s): Ms. Me. Sarashwathy for R1.
Mr. E.K. Kumaresan through Mr. Sarath
Babu for R2 to R8
Date of Judgement: 11.06.2021.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. RAMAKRISHNAN, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE DR. K. SATYAGOPAL, EXPERT MEMBER
JUDGEMENT
1. The above case has been Suo Motu registered by this Tribunal on the basis of the newspaper report published in The New Indian Express dated 03.06.2020, under the caption "Kerala elephant tragedy: Another Jumbo suspected to have been killed in similar fashion".
2. It is alleged in the newspaper report that a pregnant wild elephant in Silent Valley Forest had become victim to an inhumane act of using explosive substance kept in a Pineapple which was consumed inadvertently by the wild elephant and resulted in the death of the pregnant wild elephant and the fetus was also damaged on account of the same and the young one died without seeing the light of the day.
23. This issue, in fact agitated the minds of the people all over the nation and it has become viral in the social media as well. These things are happening due to various reasons including non-
adoption of the norms for protecting the wild animals in the forest exposing them to conflicts with human beings and thereby their lives were put to danger.
4. It is also seen from the newspaper report that that some action has been taken by the Forest Department and by the State and Central Governments. This case has been registered for the purpose of considering the ground reality and obtains suggestions to avoid such things in future and also for providing some long term strategies to minimize man-animal conflict in wild life habitats or fringe village adjoining the forest area. So this Tribunal had admitted the matter and appointed a Joint Committee comprising of a Senior officer not below the rank of Chief Conservator of Forest deputed by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Wildlife, Chief Wild Life Warden, Kerala, a Senior officer from Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Southern Zone, Wild Life Warden of Silent Valley Division and Divisional Forest Officer of Mannarkkad and Punalur and the District Collector, Palakad to go into the question and submit a factual and action taken report including the long term management plan to avoid such recurrences in future. The Wildlife Warden of Silent Valley Division was designated as the nodal agency for co-ordination and providing necessary logistics for this purpose.
5. It is also mentioned in the order to furnish details of existing schemes, if any and the stage of its implementation and how effectively it is being done and whether any further improvement 3 will have to be made in the scheme for this purpose to avoid such tragedies and submit a report along with their suggestions and recommendations, so that the Tribunal can give certain directions to the Government to improve the same in its letter and spirit to avoid recurrence of such things in future.
6. The case was originally posted to 10.07.2020 for submission of report. Thereafter the matter has been transmitted to the Principal Bench on the basis of certain communications received from the Principal Bench and the Principal Bench by order dated 21.07.2020 re-transmitted the matter to this Bench with the direction to proceed with the matter by this Bench. Thereafter the matter was taken on 24.08.2020 and it was adjourned for the purpose of getting the report. Thereafter, the matter has been adjourned from time to time either at the request of the Committee or by notification. Lastly, it was adjourned to today by notification dated 30.04.2021.
7. Learned Counsel appearing for the 1st respondent has filed a reply affidavit stating that on seeing the newspaper report and also receiving orders of this Tribunal. On 03.06.2020, 1st respondent had sent a letter to PCCF & CWLW, Kerala regarding the incident and requested them to take urgent action under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and also sought for an action taken report evidenced by annexure-1. On 04.06.2020, Kerala Forest Department submitted a preliminary report in respect of this incident evidenced by annexure-2. The Ministry further requested the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau on 04.06.2020 to take immediate action in consultation with the State Forest Department of Kerala for nabbing the criminals involved in the case and Wildlife 4 Crime Control Bureau had sent the report on 08.06.2020 evidenced by annexure-3. On 07.06.2020, the 1st respondent again requested the Kerala Forest Department to give a detailed report on the progress being made in the legal action against the offenders in the instant case evidenced by annexure-4. On 10.06.2020, the Kerala Forest Department sent a detailed report regarding this incident evidenced by annexure-5. On 10.06.2020, the 1st respondent sent letter to all the PCCFs of all the elephant range States and requested to take all necessary preventive measures to prevent Human-Elephant conflict in the country in reference to the issue that happened in Kerala evidenced by annexure-6.
8. They have further stated that they are deeply committed in protecting the Country‟s natural environs and diverse wildlife and taking all humane steps to minimize human-animal conflict.
MoEF&CC had taken various steps on the recommendations of the Elephant Task Force (2010) report „Gajah‟ to mitigate human-
animal conflict as a result of which both human and elephant deaths have decreased noticeably in the recent years.
9. They have further stated that it is the duty of the State Governments to protect forests and wildlife within their States and MoEF&CC is only providing guidelines and facilities for these purposes. The steering Committee of project elephant recommended the constitution of working groups for study feasibility and implementation of the recommendations of the Elephant Task Force Report „Gajah‟. As per the working group recommendations, the Ministry had formulated guidelines of human-elephant conflicts which have been issued to States on 06.10.2017 evidenced by annexure-7. The MoEF&CC is providing 5 all necessary financial and technical support to the States having more population of elephants. Under Project Elephant Scheme, Rs.
574.56 Lakhs has been provided in the current financial year to the State of Kerala for undertaking various activities of scientific management of elephant habitats as well as for mitigation of human-elephant conflicts in the country. The First Regional Workshop on "Right of Passage to elephants" to mitigate human-
elephant conflict for southern region was held at Thiruvananthapuram on 11th -12th January, 2018. Certain resolutions have been passed and the minutes of that workshop was produced as annexure-8. They have further submitted that they will take all necessary steps to protect the wildlife and they will abide by the directions issued by this Tribunal in this regard.
10. The Joint Committee has filed a report wherein they have stated that the Chief Conservator of Forest has given a detailed report regarding the same which may be taken on record. which reads as follows:
Report on protection of wildlife & human-Wildlife conflict in Kerala submitted before Hon'ble National Green Tribunal, Southern Zone, Chennai in Original Application no. 77 of 2020 National Green Tribunal, Chennai Bench has initiated a suo motu proceedings vide O.A. No. 77 of 2020 on the basis of the newspaper report published in The New Indian Express dated 03.06.2020, under the caption "Kerala elephant tragedy: Another Jumbo suspected to have been killed in similar fashion". The Honourable Tribunal has given direction to ascertain the real state of affairs and also the steps to be taken to protect wildlife and minimize man animal conflicts in future. Hon'ble Tribunal directed to appoint a joint committee comprising of a Senior officer not below the rank of Chief Conservator of Forest deputed by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Wildlife, Chief Wild Life Warden, Kerala, a Senior officer from Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Southern Zone, Wild Life Warden of Silent Valley Division and Divisional Forest Officer of Mannarkkad and Punalur and the District Collector, Palakad to go into the question and submit a factual and action taken report including the long term management plan to avoid such recurrences in future.
As per the Hon'ble Tribunal direction the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, Kerala had deputed Chief Conservator of Forests (Central Circle) for the joint 6 Committee. Accordingly, meeting was conducted by the Chief Conservator of Forests (Central Circle) Thrissur at 11AM on 26.06.2020 and the following officers attended the meeting.
(1) Sri. Deepak Mishra, IFS, Chief Conservator of Forests (Central Circle) Thrissur (2) Sri Samuel Vanlalngheta Pachuau, IFS, Wildlife Warden, Silent Valley Division.
(3) Sri Arjun Pandyan, IAS, Sub Collector, Ottappalam (Representative of District Collector, Palakkad). (4) Sri. K.K. Sunil Kumar, Divisional Forest Officer, Mannarkkad. (5) Sri Shanavas, Divisional Forest Officer, Punalur. (6) Sri. A. Madivanan, Assistant Director in charge, WCCB, SRO, Kochi.
The Chief Conservator of Forests gave a background of the incidents which occurred at Mannarkkad and Punalur Divisions and the case under consideration. Divisonal Forest Officer, Mannarkkad explained briefly the case of the death of the pregnant elephant. Divisional Forest Officer, Punalur also explained the details of the case in which an elephant had diet in his jurisdiction. Both Divisional Forest Officers informed tha very good assistance is being received from the part of the police personnel for ongoing investigation. The Chief Conservator of Forests made a suggestion in amending Wildlife Protection Act for ensuring maximum conviction in wildlife cases. After the detailed deliberations, the following decisions were taken.
(1) Since a detailed report requires more study and consultation with various stakeholders. Interim report may be submitted before the Hon'ble NGT, Chennai on or before 10.07.2020.
(Action taken: Interim report submitted to NGT through Advocate General on 07.07.2020) (2) Case histories and immediate actions that have been taken in these 2 areas i.e. Mannarkkad and Punalur to sanitize the forest fringes and ensuring protection will be compiled by Wildlife Warden, Silent Valley Division and submit to Chief Conservator of Forests (Central Circle) on or before 03.07.2020. (Action taken: Report submitted on 01.07.2020) (3) Inputs from WCCB and District Administration would also be taken to be part of the report.
(4) Chief Conservator of Forests (Central Circle) will then collate all these inputs and also obtain state level interventions that have been taken up for protection from Head Quarters. All these details would then be compiled and submitted to Government as an Interim Report to be submitted to National Green Tribunal.
(5) It was also of the opinion of the Committee that ensuring long term protection and mitigation of human wildlife negative interactions requires holistic understanding of not such negative interactions. In this regard it was decided to actively engage and get inputs from learned officers from conflict prone area, scientists/institutions working on animal behaviour and conflict mitigation, inputs from local people affected by wildlife etc. Since this will take more time and effort given COvid-19 restrictions and closure of many offices as part of lockdown, the Committee decided to request Hon'ble NGT to grant more time to submit a detailed perspective on management of hum wildlife conflicts in the State of Kerala. Hon'ble Tribunal generous to grant extra time to submit final report. As part of the process the division level Human Elephant Conflict mitigation plans from all the divisions experiencing human wildlife conflicts were collected to suggest local level remedies that can be compiled at the State level.
7INTRODUCTION Human-Wildlife conflict is one of the major concerns in the field of wildlife management and biodiversity conservation. Human Wildlife Conflict is any sort of negative interaction between humans and wild animals. The damages resulting from human animal conflict can threaten the conservation of threatened species and influence the public opinion on the species involved in conflict. Like in most part of the country, the growing Human Wildlife Conflict is a major issue of concern in the state of Kerala too. Climate Change, anthropogenic disturbances, developmental activities, habitat fragmentation, habitat loss and population increase all contribute to Human Wildlife Conflict. The State of kerala is having forest cover of about 20% (http://www.kerenvis.nic.in/Database), and Human Wildlife Conflict is reported along the edges of out forest areas and on occasions further into human settlements too. The forest fringes of Kerala are estimated to contain a human population of about 6 lakhs. The rising interaction between people and wildlife in these areas also increases crop damage, property damage, human casualties and wild animals' casualties. As per the records of Forest Department of Kerala there is a long list of animals for which people demanded compensation: Elephant, wild pig, Bonnet macaque, snakes, leopard, tiger, sambar deer, wild dog, gaur, spotted deer, porcupine, Malabar giant squirrel, peacock, jackal, mongoose, flying squirrel , sloth bear, barking deer, squirrel, honey bee, civet, rock python, jungle cat, pangolin. Elephant, wild pig, Bonnet macaque and snakes top the list for conflict followed by predators like leopard, tiger and wild dog. Other herbivores like sambar deer, chital and gaur contribute to crop depredation depending on the proximity to forests especially protected areas. Most of the conflict is caused by elephants and they contribute more than 50% of the conflict cases. Most of the economic loss and also the loss of life are caused by elephants and this conflict is now widespread over the whole of the state. Conflicts by other animals are mainly local in nature. This report is therefore mostly concerned with the evaluation of mitigation measures for Human Elephant conflicts and suggestions to improve various measures so that the conflict can ineffectively dealt with.
Human-Elephant Conflict The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is an endangered animal belonging to Appendix-I of Cites and is included in the Schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Kerala holds the third largest population of wild elephants in India and the population is distributed over four elephant reserves in the state. Around 15,000 cases out of the most almost 29000 conflict incidents in Kerala is attributed to elephants as per the records of Kerala Forest Department. Human-Elephant Conflict results in Human Casualties, Elephant Casualties, injury, property damage, crop damage and livestock casualties. Elephant are the prime species involved in crops raiding and plantains, coconuts arecanut, coffee, paddy and tubers are the major crops raided by the species. Incidentally, elephant cause the most damage in all these crops when compared to other crop raiders. Elephant are also the species that cause most number of human deaths and injuries among wild mammals.
The Human-Elephant Conflict is expected to increase in the coming years and more than half of the expenditure incurred by the project Elephant goes for the Human-Elephant Conflict mitigation (ETF, 2010) 8 Habitat fragmentation due to developmental activities and linear intrusions, the larger area requirement of the species for movement, rising population of humans, farming of palatable crops like plantains near the forest fringes etc are the main reason behind rising conflict between Human-Elephant Conflict. Presently used mitigation methods include trenches, solar fencing, elephant driving forces, guarding, biological fences etc. Human-Wild Pig Conflict Wild pig (Sus scrofa) is the species to cause second most crop damage after elephants with over 5,500 incidents in the past 6 years (2013-2019 period). This species has managed to adapt well in the human altered landscape and live along with humans. This also makes the most common agricultural post among wild animals. Plantains and tubers are the major crops raided by wild pig.
The ability of the species to adapt to human habitations is the major reason for the conflict. Fencing the farm areas, vocal deterring and guarding the farmlands are the mitigation methods that can be adopted.
Human-Monkeys Species Conflict Bonnett Macaque (Maccaca radiate) is the major monkey species involved in human-monkey conflict in Kerala. They are efficient in using both arboreal and terrestrial habitats, and easily adapt t human altered landscapes. They raid palatable crops including plantain and coconut. The major reason behind Human-monkey conflict is habitat fragmentation, monkey troops in the forest edges intruding into and adapting to human habitations, people feeding monkey troops and there by troops getting habituated to people etc. The mitigation measure include prohibiting deeding of monkeys by public, sterilization of breeding individuals etc. Translocation is also employed at times but the effort that needs to be put is high due to the large number of individual in monkey troops. Human-Wild Carnivores Conflict The major wild carnivores involved in conflict with humans are Leopards (panther pardus) and Tigers (panther tigris). To a very less extant wild dogs/dholes (cuon alpines) are also involved. Tigers and Dholes are listed endangered while the leopards are vulnerable. The major form of conflict involves cattle lifting, dog lifting and at times human casualties too. Major reasons behind human-Big cat/carnivore conflict includes habitat degradation, fragmentation, transient individuals & injured individuals moving into human settlements and specially with respect to Leopards, its efficiency in adapting to human habitation and living along side people. The availability of large variety of domestic animals, stray animals including cattle, goat and dogs are also a major factor that triggers human-big cat conflict.
Mitigating methods include translocation (into captivity when it comes to injured individuals), well guarded enclosures for pets and livestock.
Based on the available data it can be concluded that elephants are the animal species that are involved in majority of the human wildlife conflicts and special attention should be taken care in this regard. More focus should be given to mitigate uman-Wildlife conflict to address the public concerns in general regarding Human Wildlife Conflict and also to strengthen efforts for conservation of wild animals. The present report is mainly concerned with the Human Elephant conflict since this is more prominent and widespread in Kerala.
Overview of Present Mitigation Efforts and suggestions for improvement.
9Kerala Forest Department is making earnest efforts to manage the Human Elephant conflict situation to best of its abilities subject to various resources and manpower constraints. Human Elephant conflict is a complex issue and there is no silver bullet for its resolution. Combination of methods/strategies is used for management of Human Elephant conflict and elephants also lean and evolve their behaviour to surmount the obstacles. New ways and strategies are therefore to be implemented or are being tried in the field in the state or elsewhere. We here attempt only to list of suggestions on various strategies which can be used for the mitigation and management of Human Elephant conflict and based on feedback received from the field staff and experts, ways to improve the effectiveness of various strategies being tried are suggested here:
1. Expanding the Habitat
a) Relocation of Enclosure/Habitation:- In many parts of Kerala Forests, enclosures within the forests areas exits. The households residing there have different land titles including forest rights. This has lead to the fragmentation of the elephant habitat and the ratio of the forest cultivation boundary to forest areas increase resulting in increase in incidences of crop raiding by the elephants in such areas. The persistent depredations of the agricultural crop have put the livelihood of the inhabitants of such enclosures in peril. Many of such people are willing for relocation.
In Wayanad District people were relocated from Arakunji, Golur, Ammavayal, Eswarakolli, Vellakod and Kottankara settlements andmost of the people from certain other settlements such as Chetty-Alathur, Kurchiat, Narimundakolli, Pilakanu and Puthur- Manimunda have also relocated.
The relocation of such enclosures will reduce the Human Elephant conflict and due to the subsequent re-wilding of such places, these areas will become viable elephant habitats. Kerala Forest Department is attempting to continue and speedup this activity by taking implementation of Wayanad relocation project further and also by identifying more such enclosures settlement for relocation. The identified and prioritized settlements are:
1) Shenduruny WLS Sl Division Name of Extent Total Eligible Total No Settlement (ha) number families amount . of required Families (in lakhs) A. Protected area
1. Shenduruny Rosemala 99.15 204 344 5160.00 Wildlife Kattilappara 11.60 33 54 810.00 Total 110.75 237 398 5970.00
2) Marayoor Forest Division Sl Division Name of Extent Total Eligible Total No Settlement (ha) number families amount . of required Families (in lakhs) B. Outside Protected area
1. II. Marayoor Puthuvettu 5.30 15 23 345.00
2. Edakkadu SC 11.40 17 26 390.00 Colony
3. Edakkadu 1.86 21 32 480.00 Colony
4. Karadi China 45.66 12 18 270.00 para
5. Punavayal 13.09 20 30 450.00 6 Kundakkadacu 1.41 7 11 165.00 Sub Total 78.72 92 140 2100.00 10
3) Wayanad North forest Division Sl Division Name of Extent Total Eligible Total No Settlement (ha) number families amount . of required Families (in lakhs) B. Outside Protected area
1. III. North Pancharakolly 0.81 1 2 30.00
2. Wayanad Maniyankunnu 1.37 1 2 30.00
3. Kalliyottukunnu 1.21 1 2 30.00
4. Kalliyottukunnu 0.81 1 2 30.00
5. CRP Kunnu 6.86 47 70 1050.00 6 Muriyanthadam 0.81 1 2 30.00 subtotal 11.87 52 80 1200.00
4) Kasargode Forest Divison Sl Division Name of Extent Total Eligible Total No Settlement (ha) number families amount . of required Families (in lakhs) B. Outside Protected area
1. Iv. Kaneri 2.25 1 2 345.00
2. Kasargod Karadukka, 0.30 3 5 390.00 Kttamkuxhy
3. Adoor 1.10 2 3 480.00 Muchaamthully
4. Ottamala 1.25 4 6 270.00
5. Thubadukka 2.00 4 6 450.00 6 Kamballur 15.00 16 24 165.00
7. Vallakkadu 2.70 3 5 75.00
8. Balavathadukka 2.43 5 8 12.00 Sub Total 17.03 38 59 885.00 Kerala Government has already awarded in principle approval for the resettlement work and has approved the financial outlay for the abve work. These activates should be continued and based on ecological significance of the area some more settlements should be identified and their inhabitants should be motivated to accept resettlement package and resettlement should be completed in a time bound manner.
At present such resettlements are being carried out as per modified guidelines of NTCA. Each family is given Rs. 15 lakhs as compensation in lieu of the land rights surrendered. However, in case of many settlements situated deep inside forest areas the inhabitants are not willing to accept monetary compensation for moving out of the habitation. For such people, their livelihood is dependent on cultivation and it will be difficult for them to survive without it. Many people will be willing to come out from deep inside the forests if alternate land along with financial help for the development of same for cultivation is provided to them. In a State like Kerala, where population density is very high finding common land for distribution is no possible. The only feasible solution is the resettle such people by resetting them on degraded forest land on forest fringes, which have substantially lesser ecological significance. The existing guidelines under Forest (Conversation) Act, 1980 do not allow the diversion of forest land for rehabilitation of people according to para 1.16 of comprehensive guidelines under Forest (Conversation) Act, 1980. If the diversion of forest land is essentially required for the rehabilitation of person belonging to Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and other who have to be shifted from core zone of the national park, sanctuary on reserve then such cases are to be considered as special cases and permission for diversion may be granted. Most of the natural forest areas of the territorial divisions are rich habitat for the elephants and the Human Wildlife Conflict are significantly higher 11 in forest areas with territorial divisions as compared to the protected area. It is submitted that Hon'ble Tribunal may kindly direct Govt. of India to reconsider the guidelines and permit the rehabilitation of settlements/enclosures existing in the interior forest area to the fringe forest areas having low ecological value. The existing plantation of exotic trees species or monoculture plantation may be utilized for this.
b) Relocation of Estates:- There are many estates situated within the forests. Cultivation of cash crops such as Rubber, Cardamom, Coffee, tea and Spices is the main business of Labourers working in the estates either reside within the estates or travel to and from for the work inside the forest roads situated in elephant habitats. Department has formed strategy of acquiring few such large holdings by payment of adequate compensation to the owners. The estates identified in the first phase are as follows:
Division # Name of Extent
Estates/Enclosure (ha)
Shendurney WLS 1 Kallar 291.2000
2 Rockwood 152.7000
Sub Total 443.9000
Periyar East Divison 3 Down/Pachakkanam 208.7497
Estate
Sub total 208.7497
Silent Valley NP 4 Noor Acre KP Estate 40.4690
5 Mannarkkad Rubber 101.1740
Estate
Sub total 141.6430
Total Pas 794.2927
Thiruvananthapuram 6 Mahaveer Estate, 498.1295
Forest Division Bonacaud
Sub total 498.1295
Wayanad South 7 CR Estae (thariyode) 57.1790
Forest Division Sub total 57.1790
Wayanad North 8 MakkimalaSaroja 34.3300
Forest Division Estate
9 Malanthottam 6.8840
Thirunally
10 Edayoorthirunally 0.2266
2.9293
0.3561
11 Banasura Plantation, 6.0625
Vellamunda
12 Narippara 0.3927
8.9100
13 Cherumunderi 40.4800
Sub total 100.5676
It is recommended that he prioritized estates should be acquired in time bound manner and in future also more such areas should be identified and acquired to minimised human elephant conflict.
c) Acquisition/Maintenance of Elephant Corridors;- Elephants are in general long ranging animals- their home range being very large and the daily and seasonal migrations is important for the proper functioning of the environment and ecosystem of the forest areas. Corridors are forest areas which connect the two large habitats which enable the elephants to move from one habitat to other. In the last many years due to encroachment of habitation in the forest areas many of such corridors are blocked for elephant movement. When the elephant herds try to negotiate such areas intense human elephant conflict is caused. Further blockage of such corridors force the elephants herds to be confined to small 12 areas of the habitat leading to degradation of the habitat and straying of herds to the periphery in search of newer migration rates. In Kerala seven important corridor have been identified. The details of such corridors and action needed for restoration is as in following table.
Sl No. Name of Corridor Division under which remakrs I
the corridor falls t
1. Begur-Brahmagiri Wayanad Land to be
(Inter-state corridor) WLS with Brahmagiri acquired
WLS & Nagarhole TR i
(Karnataka) s
2. Thirunelli- Wayanad (N) Secured and
Kudrakote (state notified r
Corridor)
e
3. Kottiyur-Periya Kannur, Wayanad (N)
(State Corridor) c
4. Periya at Wayanad (N) Land to be o
Pakranthalam (state acquired m
Corridor) m
5. Nilambur- Nilambur North & Land to be e
Appankappu South Divisons acquired
(state Corridor)
n
6. Nilambur Nilambur North & No acquisition d
Kovilakam- New South Divisons needed e
Amarambalam d
(state Corridor)
7. Mudumalai- Nilambur North Forest No acquisition
t
Nilambur via Division and needed on
O'valley Mudumalai Tiger Kerala side h
(Ouchterlony Valley) Reserve a
t
earnest efforts be taken to secure all of the above corridors. The Corridors listed above are the major corridors but many of the minor corridors also exist in the forests which connect one forest area to the other. Elephants frequently use these paths for the daily or seasonal migrations but due to land use change in last few decades these corridors are not easily accessible to the elephants which enhances the conflict issues in these and neighbouring areas. All such corridors may be identified by careful study and efforts should be made to secure these as well.
4. Increasing Efficiency of physical Barriers The main barriers utilized in the state to prevent the entry of elephant herds habitats are:
a. Elephants Proof Trenches b. Solar Power fencing c. Elephant proof walls d. Rail Fence e. Crash Guard Rope Fence The details of the physical barrier structures constructed till 31.03.2018 are as follows:
Major preventive structures constructed to Mitigate Man-
Animal Conflict (as on 31.03.2018)
Circle Preventive structures (in KM)
Solar Elephant Elephant Stone Bio Fence Kayyala
fencing proof proof wall pitched
trench Trench
Northern 589.85 196.57 149.27 0.26 0 5.12
Eastern 381.34 26.95 6.99 1.18 0 49.29
Central 218.48 12.58 0.34 1.08 0 6.45
High Range 118.52 5.41 0.45 0 24.22 13.09
Southern 269.51 75.41 6.44 1.33 2.45 155.02
WL Palakkad 331.91 249.66 12.38 2.18 0 0.04
FDPT 104.35 41.71 1.14 0.27 0 18.17
ABP 79.65 10.11 0 0 0 1.64
Total 2093.61 618.40 177.01 6.30 26.67 248.82
13
a) Elephant Proof Trenches- This is the earliest known physical barrier adopted in several parts of the country facing Human Elephant Conflict. The construction of trench requires heavy investment and the structure requires periodic maintenance.
This is not very effective in high rainfall areas, due to their extreme vulnerability to soil erosion.
In the state, 624.70 km of Elephant proof trenches have already been constructed. Many of them are ineffective due to non maintenance. In most of the places the elephant proof trench is fortified with solar power fence but due to lack of annual maintenance both the structures are not effective. It is recommended that a complete stocktaking of elephant proof trenches must be done by listed all such structures in next 3 months. Each of such structures should be verified by officers of the level of Range officers and above. The present condition of all such trenches should be ascertained and documented. The maintenance requirement of these structures to be found and proper decision must be taken as to whether to renovate or maintain these structures or to abandon these in favour of more effective structures.
b) Solar Power fence- This is one of the most popular mitigation measures and about 2093 km of the forest people interface has already been covered by erection of solar power fence. This does not require very high initial investment but need to be maintained almost on daily basis. Forest Department usually constructs the power fences but it is not able to maintain these due to financial and manpower constraints. Therefor, many of such structures are not functional. Whenever the Human Elephant Conflict reaches high intensity, solar power fence is either constructed or maintained but within short time due to non maintenance the structure becomes non effective. The only solution is to develop a robust institutional mechanism for the maintenance of power fencing. The maintenance of power fences must be actively involved in the periodic maintenance of power fences must be entrusted with the community. Local Self Government institutions should be actively involved in the periodic maintenance activities. The correct technical specification must be followed while constructing the power fence. Regular maintenance of batteries, energizer and other components must be ensured. One of the reasons for non maintenance of these structures is paucity of funds for maintenance. Sufficient fund should be provided for maintenance of already existing structures. In fact the majority of the funding earmarked for mitigation of the Human Elephant Conflict should be spent on maintenance and new structures must be done only after all the old structures are made functional.
c) Elephant Proof wall- These are not common structures used for mitigation of Human Elephant Conflict. The implementation cost is very high (rs. 140 lakhs/km) and the construction requires large amount of rubble which is to be taken out for quarries thereby creating large adverse impact on the fragile environment of western Ghats. If constructed properly these can effectively prevent elephants from entering habitations but the utility of these structures are rather limited in Kerala. These structures are to be used only in very high conflict zone and after due consideration to the local site and soil conditions.
d) Rail Fence- These fences are built with steel railway tracks granted deep in to the ground. Between two railway tracks a thick wooden poles are also dug into the ground. They are then bound by five strands of very thick steel cables horizontally 14 along the poles. At present rail fence is being tried in Kerala in Palakkad and Wayanad Districts. If design is suitably modified to site & specific requirements such structures are found be high effective in preventing entry of the elephants inhabitation.
e) Crash Guard Rope Fence- This new mitigation measure was tried in Mankulam Division of high range circle and the structure was found reasonably effective in preventing elephants from entering the habitation. ISMC series galvanized channels are placed in pits of 90Cm x90Cmx90Cm at 4m interval and stabilized with reinforced cement concrete. In each ISMC channel five holes are mad through which 5 strands of steel ropes pass which re then tied to anchor blocks at both ends. At present proposal for constructing 46 km of such fences in Kerala are at various phases of implementation. Recommendations for improving the effectiveness. a. The physical barriers at each place must be supplemented with other prevention mechanism to make them more effective. b. Each of the barrier structure must be inspected on verified by forest officer for effectiveness and the required repairs must be carried out timely. Range officers must monitor all such structures once in every 2 months and Divisional Forest officer should monitor once in three months.
c. Sufficient budget provisions should be made for maintenance of existing structures. New Structures should be avoided. Funds from Panchayath and other line Department should also be tapped for this.
d. The responsibility of the maintenance of the barrier should be entrusted with beneficiaries. Institutional mechanism for regular maintenance and repair must be developed with the collaboration and participation of the local people through VSS or LSGIs.
e. Solar Power Fence, which is the most popular barrier in the state, requires constraint maintenance. One person should be engaged of every 21 km of such line for checking battery, energizer and other requirements. A full maintenance schedule should be developed and followed for each solar power fence. f. Elephants adapt to the new barriers and usually after a gap of time learn to find weakness/gaps and then exploit these to breach the barriers to raid crops. The department will have to constantly innovate and develop new design. One such solution is hanging solar power fence, which will reduce even the efforts required for maintaining a convential solar power fence. These will now be tried and based on performance appraisal of such structures convential solar power fence should be slowly replaces with hanging solar power fence.
5.Jan Jagrata Samithi;
In order to involve the local elected people's representative to panchayaths in the efforts of mitigating Human Elephant Conflict a Government order regarding constitution of Jan Jagrata Samithi was issued as GO (Rt) No. 51/2017/Forests dated 07.02.2017. The constitution of such samithi is as follows:
1. President Grama Panchayath/Chairman Municpaility - Chairman
2. Vice President Grama Panchayath/ Vice Chairman Municipality -Vice Chairman
3. Local Range officer/Dy. Range officer -Convener
4. Member District Panchayath -Member
5. Member Block District Panchayath - Member
6. Agriculture officer -Member
7. Veterinary surgeon -Member
8. Village Officer -Member
9. Ward Members Grama Panchayath Councilors Municipality -Member
10. President of VSS/EDC -Member 15
11. Beat Forest Officer -Member
12. 3 Farmers nominated by DFO -Member Duties and Responsibilities
1. To act as bridge between people and Forest Department in Conflict areas.
2. To discuss and advise Forest Department about appropriate mitigating measures for Human Elephant Conflict.
3. To meet once in 3 months and submit the recommendations about mitigating measures to DFO.
4. To inform the Department about functioning and maintenance requirements of the barrier structure such as solar power fence, elephant proof trench or elephant proof walls and also suggest ways for proper maintenance of such structures.
5. During conflict situation help the forest officials in their operations.
6. To be a partner of the Forest Department in generating awareness among farmers about planting crops, unpalatable to elephants.
7. To make sure that the SMS system or early warning system is properly functioning in areas of Human Elephant Conflict.
8. The minutes of such meetings should be received by DFO every
6 months and the remarks on these should be submitted to APCCF for further action.
Jan Jagrata Samithis in all of the high conflict areas have been constituted. This institution started functioning well in many localities but due to the COVID situation this year, meetings could not be held timely and so after the pandemic situation is eased out these institutions must be revived. In many places Panchayath level functionaries and local MLAs have been taken keen interest and tried to solve the local level issues. This initiative need to be strengthened. Local level representatives can be sensitized towards the issues related to Human Elephant Conflict and the misconception about the wildlife management issues can be cleared through this institution. Such meetings wil formalize the exchange of ideas between the department and local people and better site specific solutions will emerge. It is recommended that DFOs should also attend at least two meeting of Jan Gagrat Samithi in a year as special representative. In many places may District level/Block level and Grama Panthayths have funded the mitigation efforts especially the construction of solar power fence. The same should be encouraged by Government through enabling orders by making this activity as part of ongoing schemes/programmes of the State and Central Governments.
6.Rapid Response Teams/Primary Teams To deal with ever increasing conflicts situations in the state, Government have constituted Rapid Response Teams as per GO(MS) No. 07/2012/Forests dated 15.02.2012. The details are as follows:
Sl. NO. Location of the RRT (HQ) Range officer in Area of operation charge of the RRT
1. Kozhikode Range Forest Kozhikode District (Thamarassery) Officer Thamarassery
2. Mannarkkad Range Forest Mannarkkad Range, (Mannarkkad) Officer Bhavani Range and Mannarkkad Western Slopes of Agali Range
3. Peppara (Peppara) Range Forest Thiruvananthapuram Officer Peppara District
4. Sultan Batheri (Sultant Asst. Wildlife Wayanad WL Division Batheri) Warden, Batheri and Chedleth Range of Wayanad South Division 16
5. Kannur (Thaliparambu) Range Forest Kannur District Officer Thaliparambu
6. Palakkad (Olavakkode) Range Forest Nemmara and Officer Palakkad Forest Olavakkode Division and Parambikulam TR
7. Nilambur (Nilambur) Range Forest Malappuram District Officer Nilambur
8. Ranni (Ranni) Range Forest Alappuzha District, Officer Ranni Konni and Ranni Forest Divisions Out of this, no staff has been sanctioned for the RRTs in Mannarkkad and Pepara while one Deputy range Forest officer only has been sanctioned for the Wayanad (Sultan Bathery) RRT.
Over a period of time, Human Animal Conflict issues are spreading to new areas. In order to address this field requirement, small teams are constituted by pooling field staff from the already depleted strength of the adjoining forest areas. Such temporary teams are operating in Kasargode, Kalpetta, Malayattoor, Munnar, Peerumedu and Punalur.
In order to effectively meet this requirement, it is necessary to strengthen the above 8 RRTs and also establish regular RRTs at Kasargode, Kalpetta, Attappadi, Chalakkudy, Munar, Perumedu and Punalur. These RRTs are to be manned by properly trained forest officers leady by the DFO. In addition, mazdoors skilled in catching snakes, scaring away elephants and otherwise handle the straying animals will be engaged based on the field requirements. A proposal for that this been submitted b Chief Wildlife Warden to the Government.
RRTs will be located at the following 15 sites. They will function under Teeritiorial/Wildlife Range Forest Officer and will have the territorial areas of oerpation as shown below Sl. NO. Location of the RRT Controlling RFO Territorial Area of operation
1. Kasargode RFO, Kasargode Kasargode District
2. Kannur RFO, Kannur Kannur District
3. Kozhikkode RFO, Kozhikkode District (Thamarassery) Thamarassery
4. Wayabad (Sultant RFO, Muthanga Wayanad WL Division and Batheri) Chedleth Range of Wayanad South Division
5. Kalpetta RFO, Kalpetta Wayanad North, Kalpetta and Meppapdi Ranges of Wayanad South Division 6 Nilambur RFO, Nilambur Malappuram District
7. Mannarkkad RFO, Mannarkkad Range, Bhavani Mannarkkad Range and Western Slopes of Agali Range
8. Attappadi RFO, Attappadi Agali Range and Attappady Range within Attappady area
9. Palakkad RFO, Olavakkode Nemara and Palakkad Forest Divison and Parambikulam Tiger Reserve
10. Chalakkudy RFO,Paryaram Thrissur District and Malayattoor Forest Division
11. Peerumedu RFO, Azhutha Periyar East, West and Kottayam Forest Division
12. Munnar RFO, Munnar Munnar, Marayoor, Mankulam Forest Divison and Munnar Wildlife Division 13 Ranni RFO, Ranni Alappuzha District, Konni and Ranni Forest Division
14. Punalur RFO, Anchal Kollam District
15. Peppara RFO, Thiruvananthapuram District Paruthippally Rapid Response Team will:
171. Carry out regular perambulation in areas vulnerable to depredation of crops by elephants will boars, gaurs and other wild animlas inspect the condition of barriers erected and submit fortnightly report to the DFO/Wildlife Warden.
2. Monitor the movement of the problematic wild animals including the effective functioning of early warning systems and provide alerts to the local publics.
3. Carry out rescue and rehabilitation operations of the injured or abandoned animals.
4. Camp at problem sites on the instructions of controlling RFO till problem situation adequately addressed.
5. Co-opt the services of veterinary doctors and undertake radio collaring and translocation of wild animals as order by the Chief Wildlfe warden.
6. Mobilize the presence of police in required numbers of control the crowd.
7. Co-ordinate the activities of jana jagratha samithies.
8. Verify applications for compensation/ex-gratia payments for wildlife attacks/damages
9. March or halt as per the order of the controlling RFO.
In order to immediately and effectively respond to the field problems and crisis, every RRT will be equipped with the following:
1. Especially designed/modified four wheel drive vehicle will carry the persons as well as specialized equipment.
2. Mobile wireless sets and walkie-Talkies.
3. Tranquillising guns with sufficient supply of drugs
4. Cages for transporting problematic animals that are captured.
5. Emergency lights, torches, snake catching equipments etc.
6. Protective gears, life saving equipment etc.
7. Microphone system for making announcements/ instructions to the public.
Staff Requirement Each RRT will be headed by a Deputy RFO and depending on the extent of area covered and the intensity of the case will have 2 to 4 section forest officers, 8 to 16 Beat Forest Officers, 3 to 6 Forest Watchers and one Driver each. Requirement of the complement of staff will be matching with the intensity of the problem, ie 1-4-16-6-1 (Deputy RFO-SFO-Forest Watcher-Driver) for very sensitive areas, 1-3- 12-4-1 for sensitive areas and 1-2-8-3-1 for moderately sensitive areas. After accounting for the already sanctioned strength available, the additional requirement of the staff is as follows:
Sl. Post Required Present Adll. Post Remarks No. Strength Strength to be created
1. Dy. Range 15 6 9 Forest Officer
2. Section Forest 37 10 27 officer
3. Beat Forest 148 31 117 Officer
4. Forest Watcher 52 7 45
5. Driver 15 9 6 The following suggestions are offered to make the functioning of Rapid Response Teams more effective.
A. The additional requirement of staff as indicated above should be approved.
B. Each Rapid response team should have a dedicated and well equipped vehicle.
C. Each Rapid response teams should have a camping place.
18D. All the required tools/implements must be made available to them. These tools implements must be kept in a well maintained tool room.
E. All the staff working in Rapid response teams must be trained for the techniques to be adopted for dealing with Human Elephant Conflict situations.
F. Standard Operating Procedure for dealing with conflict situations must be finalised and made available to Rapid Response Teams. G. Range officers and Divisional Forest Officers in charge of Rapid Response must review the performance of rapid response teams on monthly basis and then submit the report to circle officers.
7. Primary Response Teams In each conflict hotspot, on primary response team is to be constituted by selecting villagers/volunteers. The main function of each team would be watch and ward duties to spot elephants which are entering the habitations. On spotting such events they must inform the rapid response teams and local officials. Till the time rapid response team is able to reach the conflict spot, these teams should do the preliminary work such as informing the other community members, mobilize people for helping rapid response team operations etc. The team members of such primary response team must be provided basic tools such as torches, flash lights, fire torches, crackers etc. The guarding method of protection of crops was found to be largely successful in reducing a mitigating Human Elephant Conflict in many parts of the world and need to be received. Community through primary response teams must be involved in watch and ward of the crop fields. Watch towers/Machans at critical locations must be constructed to observe the movement of elephants and guard against any intrusion in the crop fields. The community must be sensitized and capacity building must be done to tackle simple situation on their own.
8. Equipping Veterinary Care At present the department is having 14 veterinary doctors. They are posted to protected areas and in various divisions. In severe conflict situations, their help may become essential. Each veterinary centre must be equipped with sufficient and proper medicines/equipments. Trainings should be imparted to all veterinarians in managing wildlife conflict situations especially when rescue and rehabilitation of animals is involved.
9. Developing Kumki Squads-Deploying Kumki elephants to mitigate human elephant conflict Kumki elephants are trained elephant to handle and manage wild elephants in conflict situations. Many states such as Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are presently using them for the management of Human Elephant Conflict. Odissa is also developing a kumki squad. Kumki elephants are crucial for capture of wild elephants and they are also utilized for monitoring, scaring and driving the wild elephants entering habitations. Kumki elephants are dominant males and they can be used for are domination. When they patrol the boundary area the crop raiding males sense the presence of more powerful and dominant males in the area and they keep away from the area. Currently KFD has very limited number of Kumki elephants, basically all of them trained in Muthanga Elephant camp since 2015. Five of the reasonably trained elephant are with the department and two more are being trained. Development of the current Kumki training program and elephant camp in Muthanga has to be strengthened to produce more compatible Kumki elephants. Multiple exposures to wild elephants are required during training session to gain dominance and confidence over wild elephants. Four kumki squads 19 of four elephants each is necessary to cover the Human Elephant Conflict hotspots such as Wayanad, Palakkad, Munnar and on squad on standby in Malyattor or konni. In such a scenario 9 more kumki elephants are required. The crop raiding male elephants are usually found to become good kumkis. The problem elephants should be identified from various landscape in Kerala and their behaviour should be monitored for a long time with radio collars. If the elephant is found to be habitual crop raider and is likely to become serious threat to life and property such elephants can be ordered to be captured and should be sent to Muthanga for subsequent training. Such a course of action will reduce the serious conflict in many hotspots and will also enable the department to develop kumki squards to take care of the conflicts issues in the future.
10. Capture of problem elephants A. Single bull elephants raiding crops: This is the classic scenario. Its known that males tend to more crop raid than females. Obviousl, any foraging strategy that maximizes the intake of energy and nutrients could contribute to better growth, survival and physical condition. Male elephants can translate better nutrition into larger body size during the post pubertal stage, when they may show a secondary stage when they may show a secondary growth spurt, or later in adult life as they continue to gain weight. A larger body size would confer an edge to a male during competition with other males. Young bull elephants raid the crops occasionally when they have easy access to the crops to its habitat. Most of the time it does not have a habit of raiding the crops regularly, where as adult habituated bulls tend to raid the crops regularly irrespective of the season and agricultural pattern. This can be more of a behavioural attribute. Most of the times single bull conflict can be seen in large landscape with large number of individuals. For example in Wayanad wildlife sanctuary that occupies in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve a large contiguous habitat. This is more of individual specific and the animal can be identified during conflict situations. In fact there is handful of such conflict individuals in many landscapes contributing major share of the HEC situations. B. Bull groups raiding crops: This is again seen in large habitat with large number of bulls with a very good male female ratio. Usually they form 2-3 numbers of adult bulls group but on rare occasions large number up to six elephants were observed. The association between the bulls were not coincidental but was intentional. During daytime they tend to live separately in the forests and form group prior to entering in to the crop fields. C. Family groups raiding crops: compared to bulls, females and the herd tend to avoid human interactins. However, situations can arise when the habitat is highly fragmented and degraded. This is clearly seen in Northeast India particularly in West Bengal. Crop damage caused by the heard is much more than the single bull or bull groups primarily claiming a regenerated old habitat, which had been abandoned long time ago, were also observed thus lading to conflict during the process.
D. Stray bull, bull group or herd trapped in thickly human inhabited area: Sometimes bull or bulls or family herd may get trapped in deep inside human inhabited landscape may be hundreds of kilometres away from the natural habitat by human pressure during crop raiding. These straying incidences are quite dangerous to human life and property.
In few cases of A, C and D the conflict level becomes very high and the habitual crop depredators who become dangerous to life and property need to be captured as last resort. Before capturing 20 however these animals need to be monitored either visually or by radio collared devices. It must be ensured before capturing that the elephant is not opportunistic crop raider but has become the habitual crop raider and either the animal is already is a risk to human life or likely to become one in future. Such elephants after careful consideration to the above facts need to be captured and should be trained to become part of the Kumki squad. Relocation of such elephants is not successful in most of the cases and more often it leads to more intense problems at the newer area where the elephants are relocated.
11. SMS based Alert system This system is being utilized in many locations in Kerala to inform the general public about the elephant movements and crop raiding attempts so as to avoid accidental encounters. Problem elephants are tracked and whenever their location is near the habitation the local people are informed about the same by bulk SMS service. At present this system is being implemented in locations in Kerala. This system need to be extended to more locations and better backward and forward linkages with elephant spotters, primary response team and rapid response team should be established. Once the functioning of primary response team and rapid response team is made more effective and adequate capacity building of the community is done this system will help in the mitigation of Human Elephant Conflict to great extent.
12. Monitoring Herds/Animals For proper management of Human Elephant Conflict, It is imperative to understand the elephants and their behaviour. The various herds and solitary animals residing in a particular landscape need to be identified and tagged. Their movement should be plotted on GLS platforms to understand the spatial and temporal dimensions of the conflict problem. Daily wage warehouse or community volunteers should be engaged at various points to record the observations. The data from various observations, photographs, etc are to be collected at one point. This may be called as elephant information centre. The Centre should have computers and staff who can plot the observations as GIS on daily basis. Such facilities must be created in all landscape facing the problem of Human Elephant Conflict. Palakkad Division has identified all the individual elephants involved in conflict based on their characteristics and is into study of individual elephant behaviour. All staff and watchers in Divison are trained in identifying the conflict individuals with their physical features and as a result of this, human death could be prevented in Palakkad Division after 2018. Also, the crop compensation due to elephant damage has reduced significantly in the past three years. Once an elephant is found to be consistent crop raider then it should be fitted witha radio collar and its movements must be carefully recorded. In case of bull groups the leader of the group can be radio collar and then the movement of such animals can be recorded. The locations where elephant information centre can b created are suggested as follows:
1. Wayanad
2. Aralam
3. Palakkad
4. Malayattoor
5. Munnar Wildlife
6. Punalur
13. Ex-gratia Payments The payment system for ex-gratia in the state is quite smooth and transparent. The rates for ex-gratia payments are as follows:
1. Human Death 10,00,000/-21
2. Permanent Disability 2,00,000/-
3. Loss of cattle/Agricultre/Houses 100% of loss assessed subject to max of 1,00,000/-
4. Injury to Humans (Expenses for treatment) Max of 1,00,000/-
The application process has been made online and the applications are processed timely. Processing of applications for ex gratia payments is a part of Right to service. Due to paucity of fund payments are delayed for some time. No significant change in existing system is warranted. Sufficient funds should also be earmarked so that payment of all the clams can be made timely.
14. Change in cropping pattern One o the effective measures to control Human Elephant Conflict is to change land use pattern in the areas adjoining to forests and elephant habitats by encouraging or nudging farmers to plant crops unpalatable to elephants. This however is difficult tak and will require long term and sustained efforts on the part of the department to work closely with the community. Agriculture Department may be consulted and incentives/subsides may be given to the farmers to change cropping pattern. Jan Jagrata Samithis, Van Samrakshana Samithies and Eco development committees can take the lead in this initiative. Departmenbt can provide support to farmers in choosing the crops and ensure the proper marketing so that farmers get adequate compensatina nd their income is not affected adversely.
Forest Development Agency Ranni has started an initiative to promote the above. Kochathuppara, Velamplavu and Bimmaran VSS were given financial assistance to plant Turmeric, wild ginger and kasthuri turmeric which are the crops unpalatable to elephants. IN Palakkad Division initial sensitisation of Agriculture officers including project Director, ATMA and Director, Agriculture is done and a pilot project is in its preliminary stage of implementation. Such initiatives in other high conflict zones should be encouraged and initiated.
15. Implementation of crop insurance scheme Kerala Agricultural and Farmers Welfare Department is implementing the crop insurance schemem for the damage caused to agricultural crop due to natural calamities. Under this Scheme, wildlife depredation is also considered as a natural calamity and 27 important crops including annual and perennial crops are covered under this scheme. Kerala Forest Department is also having the schemes of distribution of compensation for the crops damage due to wildlife depredation. In this regard, steps have been already taken to explore the possibility of operating this scheme jointly by both the Departments. In the initial stage, the scheme will be implemented on pilot basis in two Divisions. Directions are given to DFO, Palakkad and Wildlife Warden, Wayanad Sanctuary to submit a detailed report ton modality incldung the cost effectiveness in executing such scheme in the selected ranges.
16. Community involvement in Human Elephant Conflict mitigation The communities living near on inside forests have faced the conflict problem since long and they have also evolved the local level strategies to deal with it. However, since last one or two decades the community involvement in mitigatin efforts has waned considerably and the whole onus of dealing with the conflict is put on the Forest Department. We recommend that the community should be involved in taking responsibility for crop protection using low cost deterrent methods. Night guarding of the croplands must be revived so that when elephants try to enter the habitation, they are chased back by using any of the repellent methods. Some of the 22 tribal communities in state are not afraid of elephants and they have developed capabilities of driving away crop raiding elephants. In many parts of state, the communities have developed local methods such as saree fencing, use of fire or lights, use of sounds, use of dried fish on border to keep away monkeys, fences with bamboos to deter wild boar etc. such practices need to be documented.
Kerala has made a good beginning in this regard by formation of jan jagrata samithi. This is a good platform to bring the Forest Department and local leader on same platform to discuss Human Wildlife Conflict and to find solution to the problems. VSS/EDCs should be empowered by Jan Jagrata Samithi to take up mitigation measures and the department must support such initiatives by capacity building and to provide necessary resources for human wildlife conflict mitigation by local communities. The manpower with the Forest Department is very limited therefore the support of the communities will act as much needed force multiplier in pre conflict and conflict mitigation measure. The following activities may be undertaken at the earliest to strengthen the community involvement in Human Elephant Conflict.
1. Jan Jagrata Samithi should be reveal and frequent meetings should be called to review and discuss the Human Elephant Conflict situation in their area.
2. VSS/EDCs must form the bulwark of the Human Elephant Conflict mitigation plans. These must be involved in planning and execution of Human Elephant Conflict mitigations plans.
3. Capacity building of the community to effectively deal with Human Elephant Conflict issues must be carried out at the earliest.
4. Resources in form of funds and technical support must be provided by the Department or by Panchayats.
5. Long term mitigation measures such as change of land use or cropping pattern should be encouraged.
17. Early warning system (wild watch) Wild watch is an integrated human wildlife conflict mitigation system that consists of multiple modules that work in tandern with each other to provide a streamlined and stable operating environment. It performs some fundamental operations and duties in conflict mitigation like Dealing with human wildlife conflict in an adaptable and peaceful manner.
Helping authorities to get precise locations of conflicts. Helping rescue teams to take well though decisions. The various modules of the system that support its working are:
1. Early-Warning System
2. Staff-Assistance System
3. Reporting and Analysis System
4. Fence Monitoring System These modules have been integrated seamlessly with each other to complement their strengths and be highly efficient and effective as a human wildlife conflict mitigation system. The early warning system is the first and most important component/module in the system. This system uses information from people who inform about the presence of wildlife using the mobile app platform. These inbound alerts will be collected on a server and based on pre-
defined criteria, an alert will be sent to the general public as well as response teams. The important parts that constitute this module are the android app and the administrator's web interface. The staff-assistance module can be used to track and guide officials and staffs to the conflict zone. This system facilities communication between the control centre and officials via the app.
23The Reporting and Analysis module can be used to archive and view reports of wildlife conflict using mobile app platform. It can be used to make predictive models and take learned decisions. Reporting will also have facility for adding photos, as proof, this will generate a document for research and other purposes. The Fence Monitoring System monitors the integrity of the fences and detects breakages as well as anomalies in the fence network. The status of the fence can be monitored by the admin at any time. The admin may then take necessary action. The system consists of a hardware detection device that is integrated with the web interface of the administrator. The device is custom built, waterproof, and found to be effective during its testing. A control station has to be established for smooth coordination of activities. Wild watch was successfully implemented during Sabarimala Pilgrimage and the same software with slight customization can be used there.
Major factor of long term mitigation measures is data collection from the entire landscape. Modern tools can be used for more effective and scientific data collection. Data collected using the early warning system (wild Watch). Using this sytem, ater mitigating each conflict, data like animal involved, date and time of conflict, cropping pattern or land use of the conflict area, GPS location of the conflict area, activity of the animal at the conflict area etc. can be collected. Data acquired over a period can be used for trend analysis, developing conflict prediction models and many more uses.
18. Usage of Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) in Man-animal conflict mitigations:
Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) comes are useful in managing man-animal conflict in many ways (1) Locate and Monitor wild animals that are coming to human inhabited areas: The day and night camera system(s) on the drone can be used to locate and monitor wild animals activities during both day and night scenarios. Since the system is attached to a drone, it can be relocated easily and can be used to follow the animal to know where it is heading. (2) Safely driving away wild animals back to forest with minimal collateral damage: The Flash light-speaker (Animal Control) payload can be used to produce flashing lights and pre-
recorded sound the animal might be afraid of. This might help to scare the animal and drive it back to its own habitat. For example Elephant are scared of flashing light and roaring sound of tiger.
(3) Alerting the public on the presence of wild animals nearby: During an event of a wild animal activity (eg tiger) in human habited areas, the public announcement payload can be attached to the drone and can be used to give important live announcement to public with maximum effectiveness. Since the communication is direct from forest officials, authenticity and rate of penetration of such messages shall be high. On top of that, this method of broadcasting might help the officials to communicate live updates much faster. It may help the public to act on the instructions without much confusion. (4) Day and Night time search and rescue assistance: During daytime, the day camera can be used for search rescue assistance. During night time, the rescue operations can be slightly tricky due to lack of light and lack fo environmental awareness. In this scenario, the night camera will be useful. Along with that, the high intensity aerial lighting payload can be used to light up the area for the ground rescue team. (5) Routine inspection of hard to reach forest area: They day and night camera can be used to execute routine inspection of 24 the interior and not easily accessible forest area to monitor wildlife activities to check unauthorized human activities in reserved forest areas.
(6) Forest fire fighting assistance: the fire extinguisher payload consists of exploding powder-based fire extinguisher that will explode when it comes in contact with fire. These extinguishers can be dropped from drone to the region of fire from a height. Forest fire drives away animals from forest area s to adjacent human habitations so early fire detection and control of fire is essential for wildlife management.
Done are more suitable to Kerala conditions because most of man animal conflict particularly elephant issue is present in tough terrain and it is difficult for knowing exact locations and it is not easy for the anti depredation team to reach each location, drones may come to handy in such situation. This initiative has not been taken int he State to any significant level and the state must take early action to procure drones for fire protection and mitigation of Human Elephant Conflict
19. Trip Alarm for elephant Trip alarm is a warning system to prevent elephants from damaging the crop fields or human settlements. A thin wire is installed around a field or a settlement at the usual entrance of elephants whenever the wired circuit is broken it makes a loud sound. The noise alerts people and irritates elephants tending them to go back without entering the human territory. The installation of this cost effective early warning system is easy, requiring regular maintenance without frequent replacements. It is more suitable to small fields which are fringe of forest and tribal colonies located inside forest area. This may be installed on pilot basis on one or two locations and after studding the effectiveness and feasibility the activity can be up scaled.
20. Sensor based Alarm system Sensor based alarm system can be tried to detect the presence of elephants in or near village or agriculture land. These are solar powered infrared based systems and could be even fitted with a camera and can alert villagers/RRT when elephants are close to human settlements or agriculture land through SMS/Light/Alarm. The primary response team and Rapid response team could then come into action to drive the elephants back to the forest area. This may be installed on pilot basis on one or two locations and after studying the effectiveness and feasibility the activity can be scaled.
21. Mitigation Measures for conflict with species other than elephants.
The department has already preparing protocols for dealing with animals other than elephants. The draft protocols are ready. These need to be presented before Wildlife experts, officers and finalized after discussion. These protocols should be finalised within next six months.
Part-II Animal poaching for their trophies and body parts is another major challenge for conservation of wildlife. There is a high market value for most of the wild animal trophies, so poachers are ready to take huge risk for collecting them. It is also observed over a period of time that these pachers' groups are highly connected and influential. They are also deploying advance methods and using sophisticated weapons to kill the animal. In order to deal with such challenge holistic approach is required. During the last few years, the department has considerably strengthened the protection in the forest areas by construction of interior area patrolling camps and by regular patrolling and combing of interior forest area of the state. All the animal deaths are investigated and the wildlife offences are 25 booked timely and the investigation and prosecution of such offences are regularly monitored by senior officers. The following suggestions are however offered to further enhance and improve the protection efforts of the Forest Department.
1. Continuous patrolling and perambulation by the staff with advanced tools and weapons:
a. Periodic boundary patrolling by staff in forest fringe area creates sense of fear among offenders. It also helpful in finding snares, small bombs etc. along the boundary. It is an opportunity for staff to sensitize people along the boundary regarding conservation of wildlife and also acquaint them of legal consequences they have to face in case of violation of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and the rules. After the incidences of the elephant's killings in Mannarkad and Punalur divisions, Chief Wildlife Warden had order the perambulation and patrolling of all the forest boundaries. This was carried out and many illegal activities were detected. The perambulation of boundary should be carried out regularly and needs to monitor at Division, Circle and State level. b. Habitual offenders and poaching gangs go deep inside forest, camp for some time to hunt wild animals for their trophies. Continuous perambulation of forest area by staff is must to find such culprits and nab them before committing crime. M- TrIPES, android mobile application developed by Wildlife Institute of India is really helpful in planning perambulation activities inside forest area. It gives geographical information regarding traditional poaching areas, area which are not covered by staff etc. All forest divisions can deploy such IT tools for managing their perambulation activities.
2. Intelligence gathering and sharing of information with all levels of enforcement units for prevention and timely catching of culprits:
a. Intelligence collection is one of the crucial areas to be focused. With advance of modern technology particularly Information Technology and Information enable services; poaching gangs are able to manipulate activities by staying away from far off places. Lack of well streamline communication between different forests divisions in state as well as across the state being utilized by these gangs to carry forward their activities without problems. Intelligence network is required to share information across the forest divisions and also with other states. Intelligence interface also required with other enforcement units like police, exercise etc for getting more information.
b. Another dimension to intelligence gathering is to have well connected information from local area. Presently informers are very few and it is happening in and ad-hoc basis. They are not much encouraged to come forward because of very low financial incentives provided to them. All the divisions and range offices should be given enough financial allotment to build a good network of local informers, like it is available in police department.
3. In-time investigation and prosecution of cases:
a. In-time investigation and prosecution of cases, related to wildlife poaching, not only punishes accused but it also creates a sense of fear among other poachers. It discourages poachers in taking up such illegal activities. But it is not a simple task. It is required to enhance th capabilities of field staff in investigation procedures through continuous and effective training modules and also giving them access to advanced investigation tools. For example access to call data 26 registry of accused helps a lot ingathering more evidences and timely completion of prosecution. But it is very difficult for forest staff to get such data. Once data is received, meaningful pattern can be identified with some software applications. Very few staff have knowledge of using such modern software applications. So, we need to develop in house capabilities t get these CDR timely. It is recommended that forest officers should also be empowered to call for such records from the mobile operators directly for the investigations of Forest and wildlife related crime. At present the forest officers are dependent on police for obtaining such details which lead to time lag in obtaining such records. b. Maintenance of list of habitual offenders and their details are always helpful in investigation and prosecution. This database is useful in screening of offenders. Their residential and other details also very much helfpuf in collecting the evidences. Kerala Forest Department has starred on online Module called "HAWK" which maintains the list of habitual offenders entered and vetted by field staff. It contains all details regarding an offender like residential address, phone number, and involvement in earlier cases. Etc. This data base is accessible to all field staff across the divisions. Similar database may be created at national level to have a free flow of information across the states regarding wildlife offences.
4. Preventing electrocution of elephants.
To prevent the death of the elephants and other animals by electrocution directions have been issued to all the field officers by the Chief Wildlife Warden to coordinate with the officials of the KSEB and ensure implementation of the following things. a. Installation of conductor of an overhed line as specified in Indian Electricity Rules, 1956 for low and medium voltage line (5.8 metres) and for high voltage lines (6.1 meters) b. Rectification of sagging transmission lines and cable of existing transmission lines in the protected areas. c. Joint inspection of every transmission/distribution line passing through the protected areas.
d. Use of Aerial Bunched Cable (ABC) or underground cable. e. Erection of electric poles with spikes to prevent elephants rubbing against them.
f. Removal and dismantling of defunct solar powered fences. The action on all of the above points must be completed in a time bound manner.
5. Preventing deaths of elephants due to train accidents The places vulnerable for accidental death of elephants by the trains are as follows:
a. Kanjikkod Walayar "A" Line 6.5 km through forest and "B"Line 11.5 km through forests.
b. Walayar-Podanur Section "A" Line 2 km through forest and "B" Line 5 km through forests.
The urgent mitigation measures being adopted to reduce the mortality are as below:
i. Deployed 11 numbers of NMR watchers for day and night patrolling along the Railway track.
ii. 18 km of solar fencing is constructed and maintained periodically along the railway tracks.
iii. Solar lights have been erected nearby railway tracks. iv. Continuous communication is maintained with railway authorities and watchers.
v. Joint patrolling is done with the railway trackman during the night hours.27
vi. Directions is given to loco pilots to continuously horn when the train is passing through forest area, especially when the presence of elephant is detected and communicated. vii. Train speed restrictions @45 km per hour when passing through forest area during night.
viii. Railways have constructed ramps along the tracks passing through forest to facilitate easy movement of elephants away from the track on the site of a train for 6 km length of line B ix. Vista clearance is done in the bushy areas on both sides of railway tracks passing through forests to reduce the tendency of elephants camping in such locations and also to increase the visibility to the watchers, trackmen and locos. x. Common whatsapp group is formed with railway officials up to the level of Sr. DEN and DFO and all watchers to make easy communication during elephant sighting so that immediate caution is exercised by control.
xi. Continuous monitoring of the elephant wandering near to railway tracks are done as a measure of caution.
xii. Established watch towers on Line B which are manned 24x7 at place of mobile connectivity and they pass on information to station master for alerting LPS.
xiii. Constant training and awareness to loco pilots on warnings and precautions.
xiv. Best possible solution is to find alternative to line outside forest area.
It is recommended that the above activities are monitored and continued to save the elephants from the train accidents. Submitted before Hon'ble National Green Tribunal, Southern Zone Chennai.
Deepak Mishra Chief Conservator of Forests Central Circle, Thrisur (on behalf of the Joint Committee)
11. Heard the Learned Counsel appearing for the respondents and perused the documents produced.
12. It is an inhuman act done by the local residents when the elephant tried to invade into the property of the locals and causing damage to the cultivation. It is true that it is very difficult to manage the character and movement of wild animals. When they are tracing their original path, which has been later converted into non-forest purposes, there is possibility of human-elephant conflict, sometimes resulting in human causalities and sometimes wildlife may be affected by such ingenious methods adopted by the persons living by the side of the forests on the pretext of protecting their property.
Such things are not expected to be encouraged but at the same time, the Government as well as the community must realise the 28 importance of protection of wildlife as envisaged under Article 48A of the Constitution of India and also under Article 51A(g) of the Constitution of India whereby certain obligations have been imposed on the Government and also duties are imposed on the citizens to show compassion on wild animals to protect the environment.
13. The necessity for protecting wild animal like elephant corridor and implementation of certain centrally sponsored schemes to protect forest and wild animals and the role of the Government in protecting the same were elaborately considered by the Hon‟ble Apex Court in Hospitality Association of Mudumalai vs. In defence of Environment and animals and ors-2020 (10) SCC 589. and T.N.Godavarman Thirumulpad vs. Union of India and Ors.- 2012(3) SCC 277. In the latter case, the Hon‟ble Apex Court has observed that:
Environmental Justice could be achieved only if we drift away from the principle of anthropocentric to ecocentric. Many of our principles like sustainable development, polluter-pays principle, intergenerational equity have their roots in anthropocentric principles. Anthropocentrism is always human interest focussed and that non-human has only instrumental value to humans. In other words, humans take precedence and human responsibilities to non-human based benefits to humans. Ecocentrism is nature-centred where humans are part of nature and non-humans have intrinsic value. In other words, human interest does not take automatic precedence and humans have obligations to non-humans independently of human interest. Ecocentrism is therefore life-centred, nature-centred where nature includes both humans and non-humans. The National Wildlife Action Plan 2002-2012 and the Centrally Sponsored Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats Scheme, 2009 are centred on the principle of ecocentrism.
14. In Hospitality Association of Mudumalai (supra) the Hon‟ble Apex Court has observed that:
32. At the very outset, it must be noted that the Wildlife Trust of India terms elephants as a "keystone species" because their nomadic behaviour is immensely important to the environment.
Herds of roaming elephants play several important roles in the ecosystem:
32.1 Landscape architects: Elephants create clearings in the forest as they move about, preventing the overgrowth of certain plant species and allowing space for the regeneration of others, which in turn provide sustenance to other herbivorous animals.29
32.2 Seed dispersal: Elephants eat plants, fruits and seeds, releasing the seeds when they defecate in other places as they travel. This allows for the distribution of various plant species, which benefits biodiversity.
32.3 Nutrition: Elephant dung provides nourishment to plants and animals and acts as a breeding ground for insects. 32.4 Food chain: Apex predators like tigers will sometimes hunt young elephants. Further, elephant carcasses provide food for other animals.
32.5 The umbrella effect: By preserving a large area for elephants to roam freely, one provides a suitable habitat for many other animal and plant species of an ecosystem.
33.Elephant corridors allow elephants to continue their nomadic mode of survival, despite shrinking forest cover, by facilitating travel between distinct forest habitats. Corridors are narrow and linear patches of forest which establish and facilitate connectivity across habitats. In the context of today's world, where habitat fragmentation has become increasingly common, these corridors play a crucial role in sustaining wildlife by reducing the impact of habitat isolations. In their absence, elephants would be unable to move freely, which would in turn affect many other animal species and the ecosystem balance of several wild habitats would be unalterably upset. It would also eventually lead to the local extinction of elephants, a species which is widely revered in our country and across the world. T o secure wild elephants' future, it is essential that we ensure their uninterrupted movement between different forest habitats. For this, elephant corridors must be protected.
34.Legal intervention in preservation of these corridors has been necessitated because wildlife corridors are threatened by various social, economic and anthropogenic factors, as noted above.
Commercial activities such as running of private resorts and construction of new buildings with barbed and electric fences within elephant corridors pose a serious threat of fragmentation and destruction of habitats. The long-term survival of the species depends on maintaining viable habitats and connecting corridors which maintain variance in the species' gene pool and avoid other risks associated with habitat fragmentation and isolation of species.
35. Overtime, several environmental legislations including the Indian Forest Act, 1927 and the Wildlife Act have been enacted to provide for the protection of forests and wild animals, with a view to ensuring ecological balance and preserving natural habitats including such corridors. The object of the Wildlife Act was interpreted emphatically by this Court in State of Bihar v. Murad Ali Khan 1988 (4) SCC 655 in the following terms:
"8. ... The policy and object of the Wild Life laws have a long history and are the result of an increasing awareness of the compelling need to restore the serious ecological-imbalances introduced by the depredations inflicted on nature by man. The state to which the ecological imbalances and the consequent environmental damage have reached is so alarming that unless immediate, determined and effective steps were taken, the damage might become irreversible. The preservation of the fauna and flora some species of which are getting extinct at an alarming rate, has been a great and urgent necessity for the survival of humanity and these laws reflect a last-ditch battle for the restoration, in part at least, a grave situation emerging from a long history of callous insensitiveness to the enormity of the risks to mankind that go with the deterioration of environment.30
xxx xxx xxx
10. ... Environmentalists conception of the ecological balance in nature is based on the fundamental concept that nature is "a series of complex biotic communities of which a man is an inter- dependant part" and that it should not be given to a part to trespass and diminish the whole. The largest single factor in the depletion of the wealth of animal life in nature has been the "civilized man" operating directly through excessive commercial hunting or. more disastrously, indirectly through invading or destroying natural habitats."
15. This will go to show the importance of protection of environment especially forest wildlife habitats which is necessary for not only protecting the wildlife but also avoid man-animal conflict to greater extent.
16. It is not possible for this Tribunal to evaluate all the situations and give direction as to how this can be mitigated. It is for the MoEF&CC and respective State Governments who are dealing with such subjects or who are expected to expose to such situation to come with a mitigation plan and that will have to be implemented by both the Central and State Governments effectively. With this in mind only this Tribunal had asked for the detailed report from the appointed Committee including the Chief Principal Conservator of Forest and other authorities, who are expected to face such situations on ground level to come with a plan as to how these things can be mitigated in future and reduce the causality of wildlife on account of such man-animal conflict. It is on that basis the Committee has submitted the report adopting the recommendations given by Chief Conservator of Forests as part of the Joint Committee report. We have gone through the report submitted by the Chief Conservator of Forests, who had extensively dealt with all the issues minutely and had given certain suggestions and recommendations as to how they will have to be done. On going through the recommendations, this Tribunal had felt that it is not possible to 31 give directions accepting the report as such regarding certain modifications required under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 or other allied Acts which are dealing with the conversion of forest for non-forest purposes etc. Those are all matters to be considered by the Central Government as a policy decision and then make necessary amendments, if any, required under the respective statutes if permissible under law and that too not affecting environment adversely.
17. So under such circumstances, we feel that instead of giving concrete direction in this regard, we feel it appropriate to direct the MoEF&CC to examine the report submitted by the Chief Conservator of Forests and take appropriate steps to implement the same in a legalistic and holistic manner so as to approach the issue in a legalistic and practical manner to avoid recurrences of such things in future.
18. So the application is disposed of as follows:
i) The MoEF&CC is directed to examine the detailed reported submitted by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) which was extracted by the Tribunal in the order and then take all necessary steps to evolve a mechanism to mitigate the problem of man-animal conflict especially the elephant issues and provide necessary fresh guidelines, if required, in this regard.
ii) If such guidelines are given, the respective State Governments are directed to implement the same and see that man-animal conflict is reduced to protect wildlife.
iii) Whatever suggestions given by the PCCF which can be implemented at the State Level can be examined by the State 32 of Kerala and take steps to implement the same within their State.
iv) The MoEF&CC is also directed to examine the question as to whether any guidelines for recovery of any compensation from the person who are committing such act and evolve a formula for that purpose is possible and direct the authorities to take steps to recover the same apart from initiating prosecutions under the relevant provisions of Wildlife (Protection) Act or any other allied Forest Acts.
v) The State Governments are also directed to provide necessary effective investigation machinery in the Forest Department to deal with such incidents in an effective manner as well.
vi) The State Governments can also consider the question as to whether any separate wing will have to be provided within the Forest Department to deal with these issues effectively and if so create such posts if any required for meeting the situation.
vii) MOEF&CC is directed to complete the process and prepare the guidelines and mechanism as directed and submit the action taken report to this tribunal within a period of six months.
viii) The State Government is also directed to submit the action taken report regarding the compliance of the direction given by this tribunal within a period of six months.
ix) If such reports are filed, then the office is directed to place the same before the bench for consideration.
19. The Registry is directed to communicate this order to MoEF&CC, Chief Secretary, State of Kerala and Principal Secretaries of Environment, Forests, Revenue and Finance of State of Kerala for 33 their information and compliance of the directions issued by this Tribunal.
20. With the above directions and observations, the application is disposed of.
...................................J.M. (Justice K. Ramakrishnan) ...............................E.M. (Shri. Dr. K. Satyagopal) O.A No.77/2020(SZ) 11th June, 2021. (AM).
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