Traditional lookout points

BACKGROUND

Juxtaposed between the Eastern Himalayas and Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspots, Kaziranga distinctly characterizes three bio-geographic regions labeled as Eastern Himalayas, Indo-Malayan and Indo-Gangetic regions. A section of Asian Highway 1 literally forms the southern boundary of Kaziranga NP from Amguri to Panbari. Human beings have inched forward over the years, progressively narrowing and actually blocking the corridors used by elephants in this section. That makes thousands of villagers vulnerable to elephants moving between KNP in the north and Karbi-Anglong hills in the south.

DESCRIPTION

Human-elephant conflict (HEC) in Kaziranga’s southern part is mainly manifested in agricultural fields which makes it largely seasonal. The crop raiding is at its peak in winter when rice ripens -. Interestingly, a study conducted in the Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam indicates that HEC peaks during July-August for the summer crop and October for the winter crop. This could be attributed to the flooding pattern of KNP around July and August when a large number of elephants might have returned to the adjoining Karbi plateau at the advent of the floods. The seasonal characteristic of crop-raiding in Kaziranga stems from the fact that a large part of the elephant population in Northeast India remains in Assam during rice cultivation months. Elephants often use tea plantations to move around and quite often the tea gardens are contiguous with rice fields. The seasonal movement of elephants to Karbi plateau before the floods could effectively reduce the number of elephants around KNP villages in other seasons and thus could account for a different peak season of HEC in KNP in contrast to Manas Tiger Reserve.
When rice crop is still young, elephants stealthily descend on the rice fields when it is completely dark. As the crop starts bearing grain, elephants get impatient and quite often they can’t wait till it gets completely dark. You can see a herd of elephants leaving KNP and crossing Moridiffulo river around dusk.

PRINCIPLE

It was decided that community-managed solar-powered fences would be erected at two locations --Rangalu near Western Range and Jhaporipathar near Eastern Range --where elephants ventured into paddy fields only to raid crops. A sustainable model was designed according to which the villagers would contribute bamboo posts and volunteer their services for installing the fence. TCF sponsored the equipment and the solar-powered fence. The villagers agreed to pool a part of their additional income to take care of repair and maintenance of the fence. Many eyebrows were raised on the feeble-looking bamboo posts when the first solar-powered fence was being installed in 2016. The 4-km fence has stood the test of time, protecting crops in over 2500 acres of agricultural fields, valued at 25 million rupees.

The village committee dismantles the fences post the harvest seasons to avoid blocking free movement of elephants for over eight months in a year.

TCF recommended traditional lookout points called tongi which were going to be aligned differently to make them more effective. Traditionally, tongis would be in the paddy fields where a farmer would hide and rest to guard his crop, waiting for the elephants to come. Alarmed by approaching elephants, the farmer would shout, light a fire or use sharp objects to deter the elephants. Sometimes, the shout and chase would bring the farmer in close contact with the elephants, risking the former’s life. The sharp objects harm elephants sometimes, even when farmers don’t intend to inflict fatal injuries.

Relocating tongis after an extensive survey of elephants’ movements and strategically placing them could improve the efficacy of lookout points. In TCF’s model, every tongi needed to be built strong enough to accommodate members of five families and equipped with a powerful flashlight. So, 112 points were identified where such tongis would directly help the farmers protect their crops.

Site-specific mitigation measures could be designed jointly by the affected people, competent forest officials and wildlife conservation organizations. Elephants are smart enough to outwit us. If we aim for co-existence with them, a fair degree of hope for conservation at landscape level could be entertained. This is what our Kaziranga diary tells us!

CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS

Farmers should work together
Most of the farmers should be part of it
Communication and awareness should go together

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