Where BIG BULLS Rule

 

written by: kapil baba, tara house, bhowali, Uttrakhand

Ramesh Muniyappa finds it very difficult to grow any his 2 acre land in BR Hills, Karnataka. A farmer by heart he loves to grow spices and coffee in this area but he always face loses as elephants destroy his farm whenever they want. He is at their mercy as he can’t kill them or come face to face with the giants as he fears for his life. But sometimes an early warning by forest department gives him ample time to protect his workers who could have been killed by a BIG BULL

In 2020 the nation was shocked with a death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala. She ate a pineapple filled with crackers. It was kept for wild boars and even elephants who destroy crops whenever they want. It’s a tale of man animal conflict in South part of India which has the largest population of Asian Elephants.

India has a long association with Elephants. For centuries they have been used by man in wars and domestic works. But sometimes things don’t end up happily.
Karnataka in Southern India is home to the largest population of Indian Elephants and especially the Hasan district is famous for its BIG BULLS. For years Hasan became a battleground between man and elephants. Man on one hand took away large chunks of forest area and elephants on the other hand wanted food. So a conflict was inevitable. Both sides faced casualties but thanks to new technology that this war is now more or less getting calmed down.

Hasan falls in iconic Western Ghats in Karnataka that accounts for 60% of Karnataka’s forest area. A fertile landscape comprising fragmented forest patches, coffee plantations and paddy fields. Hasan offers a rich and conducive topographical Mosiac for elephants who are known for travelling long distances.

It was observed that elephants attacked between 6 am to 10 am in the morning and between 4 pm to 8 pm in the night. It was time when coffee plantations workers were on the move.

In the last decade every year nearly 5 to 10 people used to get killed and many got injured when they faced elephant herds or any rouge animal. Though 100 elephants were relocated but they kept coming back to the area. 

Therefore, the forest department and scientists of the area came with a unique idea of sending SMS warnings of elephant’s presence in the area. There are 220 villages in Hasan and in 2017 they started registering their mobiles with the forest department.

Now there are nearly 50 thousand registered mobiles with the forest department and each of them gets an early warning message and that too in Kannada so that people don’t face the Big Bulls. Also scientists educated the people not to try to shoo the animal in the day time as they get stressed and attack. People abided by them which resulted in nearly zero deaths in 2019 and 2020.

Now people have started respecting the elephants again and as things have been normalised there is less tension in Hasan. The elephants are safe and so are the humans. But the only problem that exists is that people still cut down trees leaving less space for the giants and this issue should also be addressed jointly by people and the authorities.