REPORT - 2008 - Eds.- PRITHIVIRAJ FERNANDO, M. ANANDA KUMAR, A. CHRISTY WILLIAMS, ERIC WIKRAMANAYAKE, TARIQ AZIZ AND SAMEER M. SINGH - WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE, GLAND, SWITZERLAND.

ABSTRACT: Few wild species evoke as much attention and varied emotions from humans as elephants. Their imposing size, high level of intelligence and complex social behavior attracts attention and endearment while their propensity to raid crops and sometimes aggressive behavior also instills fear and animosity. The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is a symbol of pride, status, and cultural heritage throughout its geographical range. Historically the elephant has been revered and worshipped as a God, used as a warrior, ambassador, beast of burden, and has held a central place in Asian civilizations. Today it is one of the leading 'flagship species' for biodiversity conservation in Asia. However, friction between humans and elephants termed Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) occurring mainly over space and manifesting in seasonal raids in villages that lie in the elephants' range often result in retaliatory killings.  This has come to seriously threaten their survival in the wild. If left unchecked it will result in the demise of an icon of Asia's heritage. 

The consequences of human-elephant conflict are not only of key conservation concern but also are major socio-economic and political issues. Therefore, resolution of human-elephant conflict is a major concern and a high priority for conservation of elephants in range countries. Influx of humans and conversion of natural habitat to human dominated land-use causes fragmentation and loss of elephant habitat. With increased contact, elephants progressively raid crop fields and break down houses to get at stored crops. Chance encounters between elephants and people, as well as efforts of people to guard against elephant depredation results in injury and death of humans. Harmful methods employed by people in the process result in death and injury of elephants thereby escalating human-elephant conflict.

Farming in areas with elephants has been the norm in many parts of Asia for thousands of years. Cultivated crops represent varieties of plants that have been artificially selected and bred to increase their nutritional value, palatability, productivity, and to decrease plant secondary compounds. As such, crops are much more attractive to herbivores than wild fodder. Wherever crops are cultivated in areas with elephants, crop raiding is an overriding factor, and farmers from time immemorial have devised ways and means of guarding their crops from raiders. Today, the main issue with prevention of crop raiding by elephants is not whether or not it can be achieved, but rather how it can be actualized at a favorable cost-benefit ratio. In most cases, the problem is that the economic value of crops cultivated is very low. Although the total loss due to elephants can be considerable, the damage per-unit of cultivation is generally very low. Therefore, while many methods can be utilized to effectively safe guard crops from elephants the cost per-unit of safeguarding can be comparatively high, preventing their employment on a wide scale.

A multitude of traditional methods have been developed through the ages to reduce and prevent crop raiding by elephants in conflict prone areas. The escalation of human-elephant conflict in the past few decades and technological advances have resulted in development of additional methods to address the problem. In general, traditional methods are easy to use, have low costs and are more effective at low levels of conflict. With increasing conflict, more technical and sophisticated methods need to be used which carry higher costs. The various techniques employed in human-elephant conflict mitigation range from chasing elephants by shouting, drum-beating, noise-making, use of fire crackers, lights and torches, to engaging koonkies (trained elephants) and specially trained and equipped teams of people, construction of elephant barriers such as rubble walls, ditches and canals, biological and electric fences, deployment of alarms, development of communication systems, capture, translocation and culling of problem animals, use of highly sophisticated technology such as satellite telemetry, and compensation and insurance schemes. 

No one method is a 'stand alone' universal solution for conflict resolution/mitigation. Each technique has its advantages and disadvantages. Methods maybe used in differing permutations to increase their effectiveness. Farming practices, traditions and expectations of people, environmental conditions, habitat characteristics, resource availability and even elephant behavior may vary widely across the range of Asian elephants. Thus local information is vital to determine what methods will be appropriate for a given situation. Being intelligent and highly adaptable animals elephants also learn to circumvent and overcome many of the methods used for mitigation, and methods that were initially successful may lose their effectiveness over time. Therefore, continuous monitoring and adaptive management based on results is critical for successful human-elephant conflict mitigation. Most activities conducted to safe guard crops and to mitigate the human-elephant conflict have been developed almost entirely from the point of view of human needs. The impact of such activities on elephants has been rarely studied. Some activities such as elephant translocation and range restriction with barriers, though usually conducted with the idea of safeguarding elephants, may be extremely detrimental to their survival when used inappropriately. Therefore, it is essential to not only monitor the success of activities in mitigating the conflict but also to study their direct and indirect impacts on the elephants concerned.