Deaths in human-animal conflict in Wayanad spark protests and debates

Kerala’s northern district Wayanad is in the news once again for another spate of human-animal conflict incidents. Three men have died over 17 days in conflicts with wild elephants in the district, followed by mass protests by farmers’ organisations, state and union ministers’ visits and incessant debates, as is usually the case after such incidents. The latest of the deaths happened on February 16. A member of the Kuruva Island Forest Protection Committee 50-year-old man Vellachalil Paul, was trampled to death by a wild elephant while he was on his way to work at Kuruva in the district. Before that, Ajeesh, 47, a farmer, had died in an attack by a radio-collared male elephant named Belur makhna (tuskless elephant) on February 10. In another incident, N. Lakshmanan, 65, an estate watcher and a tribal worker at Tholpetty was killed by a wild tusker on January 30. Tiger attacks too have been the cause of conflict and deaths in the district with the latest being 36-year-old Prajeesh Kuttappan Marottiparambil who was killed in a tiger attack in December last year near a forest area in Vakeri in the district.

As many as 149 people have been killed and over 1,000 injured in wild animal attacks in Wayanad since 2014. The district has lost 41 human lives to elephant attacks and seven to tiger attacks over the last decade.

In 2022-23, 8,873 incidents of human-wildlife conflict were reported in the state including 98 human casualties, according to the Economic Review 2022-23. Of this, 48 people died of snake bites, 27 in elephant attacks, seven in wild boar attacks, one each in wild gaur and tiger attacks and 14 in other animal attacks. A total of 871 people were injured in the attacks while 65 cattle deaths were reported. For human deaths, Rs. 3,37,31,013 compensation was paid while Rs. 2,45,73,297 was paid for human injuries and Rs. 1,46,66,363 was disbursed for cattle deaths. In total, Rs 10.49 crore (Rs. 105 million) was disbursed as compensation for human death and injury, cattle loss, and crop damages.

A multi-layered issue

The local people and the farmers of Wayanad have blamed the state Forest Department for the recent deaths and for not giving timely warnings. They also alleged that the animals traversed the border because of the lack of sufficient water and food inside the forest.

Akhil Venugopal, a lawyer based in Mananthavady and a member of the Forest Department’s Rapid Response Team (RRT) told Mongabay-India that it is the lethargy of the department that ended up in the death of Ajeesh. “There is an elephant route in the four kilometres from Kuruva island to Kudalkadav check dam. Usually, it is the local people who chase the animals away by making noise and bursting crackers, which is permitted by the Forest Department. The male elephant Belur makhna had moved to human habitat, to a village named Payyampally, the day before it killed Ajeesh. The Forest Department didn’t warn the local people despite the elephant being radio-collared (the GPS-enabled collars help to track an elephant’s movement as well as to get real-time updates on its location) and despite knowing that the elephant was rogue that had killed one person in Karnataka, the department should have announced for people to stay away from the animal,” he said.

Wayanad Wildlife Warden Dinesh Kumar, however, said that the satellite communication with the elephant had been lost on the day of Ajeesh’s death. “The death of Ajeesh happened in the territorial division, not in the sanctuary. The radio collar won’t give a continuous signal, only if there is good satellite coverage the signal will come. During that time (the death of Ajeesh) there was no signal for one and a half hours. But in that case, too the forest department staff was on the spot who alerted the residents. But some local people tried to chase away the animal,” he said.

The department though had intensified the combing operation to capture Belur makhna. The elephant had moved to nearby Bavali forest under the Nagarahole tiger reserve in Karnataka.

Dinesh Kumar also countered the argument that food and water are scarce inside the forest. “Not all the elephants are creating conflicts, if there was scarcity, all the elephants should have come out of the forest, only some animals do that due to their behavioural pattern. Some elephants while gazing at the forest border have an instinct to come to the land smelling farm produce. The water pools inside the forest are full. The conflicts are happening during monsoons too, the conflicts are higher during monsoons; because of the harvesting season animals would smell the produce harvested on the land. Also, in the case of tigers, it is the injured tigers that are coming out as they can hunt prey inside the forest,” he said.

Wildlife population growth, habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, and the resultant environmental impact along with cropping pattern changes are reported as the major causes of the rising human-wildlife conflict in the region, according to the Economic Review 2022-23.

Farmers blame it on the ‘increase in animal population’

However, the farmers’ organisations’ theory is that the animal population has increased over the years and even suggested an aggressive step of killing animals. P.M. George, Chairman of the Farmers Relief Forum in Wayanad and a farmer from Pulppally said that the attacks from wild animals were not this frequent 30 years ago. “Those days, humans used to hunt the animals. Now the wildlife population has increased,” he said. He suggested that the government should build boundary walls to border the forest and the land. Fifty-six-year-old George grows tuber crops and bananas. “Farmers are struggling to protect their farms from animals like monkeys, pigs and sometimes tigers and elephants,” he said.

George’s neighbour, Devassy also a farmer, blamed the forest department for keeping away the tribal communities from chasing away the animals from the land. “In the past, we used to chase away elephants by bursting crackers and the tribal people used to run them off with bow and arrow. We would see a wild boar, not any other animal, even if travelled for kilometres inside the forest when I was young, now elephants can be seen on the road,” said Devassy, who also grows tuber.

Devassy also expresses concern over the forest department planting teak when bamboos were cut down in the forest which led to the loss of animal habitat. “Other plants can’t grow (for animals to get food) in a teak forest and animals can’t live there,” Devassy said, insisting the Forest Department grow plants for animals to get food.

Teaks were planted in 1958 in the Mananthavady forest region under the Begur range of the North Wayanad Forest Division. Teaks consume most of the soil nutrients and moisture to ensure its survival and don’t allow other plant species to grow around and under it.

A statement issued by Wayanad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samithi (WPSS or Wayanad Nature Protection Committee) stated that the bamboo forests in Wayanad had been cut down and replaced with eucalyptus for a company named Gwalior Rayons Factory. It was set up to produce pulp and fiber in Mavoor in Kozhikode, Wayanad’s neighbouring district, during 1957-58. “This made animals graze on farmlands. Apart from other insensitive moves by the alternative governments that ruled the state, resorts are functioning in eco-sensitive areas and there is an eco-tourism initiative of the tourism department, both without following any rules, have destroyed the wildlife habitat, that made animals come to farmland,” the statement read.

Apart from the destruction of natural habitat for animals, Wayanad’s geography also makes it vulnerable to human-animal conflict. Wayanad shares forest areas with Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and Sathyamangalam Forest in Tamil Nadu, Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, Bandipur National Park and BR Tiger Reserve in Karnataka. Animals, especially long-moving animals like elephants, traverse state borders for food. “It is a dynamic location,” Dinesh Kumar said. WPSS in the statement said that there is no system at present in place to coordinate the issues of the forest that is spread across three states (Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu) and demanded to constitute a statutory body under the Union Forest and Environment Department.

Even though the land area of Kerala is only 1.2% of the country, the forest cover is 2.3% of the national forest area. The recorded area of forest in the state is 11531 square kilometers or about 29.6 % of the state’s geographical area (38,863 sq km). However, the actual forest area including those outside the reserved forests is much more. As per the 2021 assessment of the Forest Survey of India (FSI), the total area under forests including plantations is 21,253 square kilometers which is 54.7 % of the state’s geographical area. Wayanad district has 74.2 % forest cover, the highest in Kerala, followed by Pathanamthitta and Idukki. Among the districts in the state, Idukki has 3155 square kilometers of forest land, followed by Palakkad with 2104 square kilometers and Malappuram which is 1984 square km.

Considering the percentage of area under forests, Kerala is placed relatively in a comfortable setting; however, the higher density of population in the state exerts comparatively more pressure on the forest resource.

 “We are taking long-term and short-term measures. We have started implementing the eco-restoration in the territorial division,” Dinesh Kumar said.

According to the Economic Review, a comprehensive strategy with long-term and short-term measures is underway as part of the 14th Five-Year Plan to manage human-wildlife conflict. It includes the construction of elephant-proof trenches, elephant-proof stone walls, solar power fencing, other preventive measures, wildlife habitat improvement, providing fodder and water in interior forest areas for wildlife, support to RRTs, etc.

Banner image: An elephant walking on a road in Kerala. The Wayanad district in Kerala is constantly witnessing wildlife encounters, including fatal incidents involving elephants and tigers. Photo by Nandukrishna_t_ajith/Wikimedia Commons.