BENGALURU: Karnataka will soon experiment with the hugely successful South African birth control technique to check the growing elephant population in the state, in the face of increasing human-elephant conflict.
"We had recently submitted a proposal to the Karnataka government, seeking funds to take up the experiment, and it has been approved. We will first use the contraceptive technique called immuno-contraception on called immuno-contraception on captive female elephants, before using it on elephants in the wild,'' said Manoj Kumar, chief conservator of forests, Kodagu. He said the elephant population in South Africa has been controlled by injecting female elephants with a vaccine that triggers an immune system response to block sperm reception.
The man-animal conflict level has reached extremely high levels, owing to the unprecedented increase in pachyderm population and developmental activities of humans. Karnataka, home to 6,072 Asiatic elephants, according to the Karnataka elephant census 2012, conducted by the state forest department and Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, has tried various methods such as digging elephant trenches, solar-powered electric fences and relocation of crop raiders, but met with limited success.
Trampling accidents by elephants alone are responsible for at least 50-75 deaths and injuries to around 200 humans, besides crop damage on around 30,000 acres, on an annual average. In the past 10 years, at least 210 elephants have also died due to various reasons, including poaching.Urbanization, development of infrastructure and fragmentation of habitats due to construction activities have aggravated the problem.
If PZP worked as antifertolity agent in jumbos it may work in humans too for population control (family planning of yester years)B.Jagadish Kumar
Adult elephants consume about 100 to 300 kg of food a day , and most elephants are in fencedin reserves where vegetation could be decimated if populations grow too large. "The failure to control the reproduction of the spe cies also leads to a population that exceeds the carrying capacity of the reserve and to habitat degradation. The solution to control the population of the elephant is not easy to arrive at as it is a schedule-1 animal and protected under the Wildlife Protection Act. So birth control is the last available option," say forest officials.
KM Chinnappa of Wildlife First, who was also the warden at Nagarahole National Park, said the birth control technique should be limited to captive elephants. "As the corridors there are encroached by roads and concrete jungles, elephants don't have a chance to remedy their overpopulation naturally , as they would through migration," he added.
