About Anamalai Elephant Programme in Rainforest Restoration Research Station, Valparai

Elephants and human beings in an array of ways are intertwined to each other and the relationship dates back to centuries. Since time immemorial, both elephants and human beings have been playing major roles in the modification of landscapes, elephants through their foraging behaviour and human beings through clearing forest lands and utilization of the land resources for agriculture and other activities. The advent of agriculture brought a new perspective of the relationship between elephants and human, which came in the form of what we call today as Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC). HEC is not a new topic of interest; for centuries, elephants have been indulging in activities such as crop raiding. In such cases, the conflict leads to loss of lives on both sides. Changing land-use patterns led to loss of habitat of the elephants and as a result, intensified the conflict over use of resources such as food and space.
Of the various elephant landscapes across India, the Anamalai spread across 5600 km2 supports a good population of elephants, forming the second largest contiguous elephant habitat in the country. Multiple land-use changes in the 1800s during colonial reign led to clearing of large expanses of rainforests leaving behind small fragments. In these plantation-forest landscape matrices in the Anamalais, the AEP has been working towards fostering human elephant coexistence for the past decade and half. In 2002, Dr Mavatur Ananda Kumar of Nature Conservation Foundation began to look at various aspects of elephant behaviour through individual identification and understanding ranging patterns. The elephant database that Kumar initiated, over years have now grown to 100 odd individuals. Kumar and his team’s initial researches elucidated critical facts on conflict incidents in Valparai and this knowledge has contributed towards developing sustainable conflict mitigation measures which continue till date. The team’s studies showed that lack of information was the critical reason behind unexpected encounters with elephants and resulting human fatalities.
Addressing one of the most serious conservation issues across globe, Human-Elephant Conflict, the AEP’s efforts in the form of Early Warning Systems (EWS) started functioning in 2006 by formulating elephant informant networks, which pass on and receive messages about elephant presences. With the advent and popularization of mobile phones in the hill areas, the EWS were taken a step ahead by initiating bulk-SMS systems wherein over 3000 individuals receive personalized elephant location alert messages on a daily basis. In addition to the SMS and TV based information systems, installation of GSM based elephant alert red indicator lights that operate in case of elephant presence within a radius of 1 km. These methods over the last three years have proved to be well received initiating more community involvement and also effective. The programme is now expanding to other conflict landscapes.
Simultaneously collaborative researches are adding layers to existing information on elephants from this landscape. Various aspects such as behaviour and stress physiology of elephants are being studied by the AEP team. Understanding these aspects at individual elephant levels are of crucial importance, as there are no problem elephants, but problem locations.