Despite rising conflict, forest officials in Kodagu neglect radio collaring of wild elephants

While resources and manpower are available to enable radio collaring of elephants in the district, officials seem to have turned a blind eye to the increasing conflict
Wild elephant being radio collared in Kodagu (File photo | Special arrangement)
Wild elephant being radio collared in Kodagu (File photo | Special arrangement)

MADIKERI: In 2019, the Karnataka government purchased 20 radio collars to be planted on wild elephants in conflict areas. However, only eight radio collars have been utilized till date and the hotspot conflict area of Kodagu has only three wild elephants radio collared. While resources and manpower are available to enable radio collaring of elephants in the district, officials seem to have turned a blind eye to the increasing conflict.

Kodagu has become a hub for wildlife conflict and many lives – of both humans and wild animals – are being lost. While the footfalls of tigers across the estates of Kodagu are quite recent, the conflict with wild elephants has been a decades-old story. Radio collaring of the elephants has earlier proven efficient in curbing the conflict by nearly 50%. Nevertheless, no steps are being taken by the officials to enable this.

“Six conflict wild elephants were radio collared in 2012. However, these were GSM radio collars and they wore off in six months. In 2015-16, a proposal to re-collar the six elephants and install collars to more conflict elephants with improved satellite radio collar – which will last for nearly three years – was sent from the district. Approval for the same was received in 2019. However, only three elephants have been re-collared till date,” explained a reliable source requesting anonymity.

He added that the state has granted resources to the department and said, “The forest department does not have to bear any funds to enable radio collaring of the elephants. The Wildlife Institute of India has been given the complete responsibility of radio collaring the elephants and Rs 1.5 lakh (each) worth radio collars are available. The DCF has to just file the paperwork and seek permission from the higher authority to radio collar the elephants. However, no permission is being sought in this regard.”

Conflict elephant herds will be identified and the leader of this herd has to be radio collared even as the movement of the herd can be tracked and monitored in real time. A herd has nearly 40 elephants and radio collaring the leader of the herd means tracking all the 40 elephants.

When questioned, Virajpet DCF Chakrapani said, “Three elephants have been re-collared and we will collar three others as soon as we track them.” However, he did not clarify on whether steps are being taken to track these elephants nor had information on the permission sought to identify new elephants and collar them. When The New Indian Express alerted the CCF regarding the issue, Takhat Singh Ranawat said, “I will collect information in this regard with the DCF.”

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