The jungles of God’s Own Country are turning into death zones for wild elephants with new reports of tragedies coming up with bewildering frequency. As per informal estimates, at least 25 wild jumbos have died in Kerala’s forests in the past one year due to unknown reasons or mysterious diseases. Most of these deaths had occurred due to apathy on the part of Wildlife authorities, allege experts.
Added to this figure is the unknown number of wild tuskers killed by poachers and those that were electrocuted and killed in train hits. The number of tuskers killed by poachers in the past three years in Kerala is put at above 12. As many as fourteen elephants have died during the same period after being hit by speeding trains on the border between Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The dimension of the tragedy in the elephant-care scene becomes all the more ominous when the death of 81 tamed elephants in Kerala in 2009 alone, as The Pioneer had reported in January last, is taken into account. “Keralites are known for their love for elephants. But the fact remains that greed and apathy are killing our pachyderms,” said Padmanabhan Nair, an elephant-lover in Thrissur.
According to KV Babu, a conservationist in Idukki, the tragedy befalling wild elephants have a national dimension “when one considers the deaths being reported from Odisha”. The recent electrocution of three elephants in Telkoi area of Keonjhar district of Odisha came as a shock to conservationists, the killing of a dozen tuskers by poachers in April-May in Simlipal Tiger Reserve are a realistic pointer to the dangerous situation India’s jumbos were in, Babu says.
Though huge sums of money are being allocated for protection and conservation of the wild pachyderms, there is no foolproof system to ensure their well-being, wildlife experts point out. “Our callous attitude is one of the reasons. We haven’t yet forgotten the fate of (wild tusker) Kolakolli, which was beaten to death at Peppara in Thiruvananthapuram four years back,” Babu said.
At least eight elephants – five tuskers and three females – have died due to unknown reasons or mysterious diseases in the past one year in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Kerala. Four of these deaths occurred since December last. Veterinary doctors are unable to confirm the exact causes of these deaths though they say that the deaths were due to various diseases. All these elephants had suffered wounds but vets say the wounds could not have been bad enough to cause death.
Several elephant deaths had been reported from the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary (presently Periyar Tiger Reserve) in southeastern Kerala due to poaching, shortage of fodder and water in summer due to rampant deforestation, fights among herds and diseases. Just two months ago, a thoroughly fatigued tusker of about 50 years of age had died after running wild for about a week in Mattupetty near Munnar.
Four mature tuskers and a male calf had died of unnatural causes in the Munnar region alone in the past one year. Two tuskers had died some months ago in the Chinnar forest region after showing symptoms similar to those shown by the elephant that died in Mattupetty. Forest officials had been present when the two-year-old calf had died after collapsing on the ground in the Mattupetty area two months back.
Wildlife experts are confident that such tragic incidents can be averted to a great extent with proper monitoring. “One of the options is to radio-collar the wild elephants. We know that it is not practically easy to radio-collar each of the thousands of elephants. But a method for this could be developed after proper surveys so that the authorities could at least have an idea of the whereabouts of herds,” said Babu.
As per a census held in 2008, the forests in Kerala had 6,068 elephants. The results of the survey held in May last are yet to come out but Wildlife authorities say that the population could have grown considerably in the last two years.
