Over the past decade, man-elephant conflict has killed 871 people and 819 tuskers in Assam, government data shows. A total of 15,093 bighas of agricultural cultivation has been destroyed in the last 3 years. Against this backdrop, an innovative strategy of a local couple and activist group Hatibondhu to defuse the situation has been widely appreciated for the empathetic approach that has benefited both locals and wild elephants.
Man-elephant conflict has been escalating tremendously in Assam because of shrinking forest cover. Wild pachyderms often enter human habitat in search of food, damage crops and sometimes trample people to death. In order to resist this elephant crop raid, people too retaliate with violent means like shooting arrows or putting up electric fences around paddy fields. All such extreme measures have only caused death and destruction.
In a situation like this, the NGO Hatibondhu has shown the way of empathy and peaceful co-existence through its ‘village meal zone project’.
This widely appreciated effort was initiated by local volunteers Binod Dulu Borah and his wife Meghna Mayuri Borah. With support from Pradip Kumar Bhuyan of Hatibondhu, the couple at first cultivated rice crop and different varieties of grass and fruits consumed by elephants in a designated area of 200 bighas. They endured all possible odds and successfully kept the raiding elephants away from proper paddy fields with their meal zone barrier.
After initial success, at present they are preparing 600 bighas as elephant meal zone. In this designated meal zone of rice, elephant apple, jackfruit, banana plants, Napier grass, etc, the venturing tuskers would be able to feast without feeling the need to enter farmers’ paddy fields. This effort has now gained the support of the local forest department too. The couple wishes for implementation of the plan in the entire state one day under the aegis of the government.
Several thousand farmers in many villages of Nagaon district in Assam have benefitted from this innovative effort. Farmers of this locality have been facing the double trouble of raging floods and rampaging elephants raiding their paddy fields. The efforts of the couple and Hatibondhu have now successfully saved crops on almost forty thousand bighas of paddy field in Chapanala-Balijuri area of Nagaon.
“This was not easy, we had to spend almost three months in a tree house near the hills where these elephants visit frequently. We are grateful to Pradip Kumar Bhuyan of Hatibondhu for making this possible. We are happy to be able to save a large part of the villagers’ cultivation,” Binod Dulu Borah said. A wildlife activist, Borah has received an award from Sanctuary Asia for rescuing the highest number of wild animals in 2015.
From identifying a ‘hatidandi’ (elephant corridor) to cultivating food for elephants, this creative effort is all about understanding the consequences of wildlife habitat loss and realising the importance of coexistence.
(with inputs from Nilutpal Borah)
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