Need better coordination for handling man-animal conflict: Jairam Ramesh

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday shared the story of an elephant-human conflict, following which the elephant was relocated to a tiger reserve in south India, and said that the country needs better coordination and cooperation to handle such situations.

In a tweet, Ramesh, who is also the party's General Secretary in-charge of communications, said, "Sharing a story that's simply staggering and has taken my breath away."

He said that on February 5, a crop-raiding 'Makhna' (tuskless male) elephant was captured in Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu and translocated to the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, around 250 km south of the well-known Palghat low mountain pass in the Western Ghats that connects Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and has served as a biogeographic barrier to separate species for millennia.

Ramesh said that on February 21, the elephant came out of the tiger reserve, began moving north through the dense human habitation and crossed the entire Palghat Gap in just two days passing Coimbatore and getting close to Mettupalayam.

"Researchers say no wild elephant had done this in at least 25,000 years," Ramesh said.

He further said that on February 23, the elephant was recaptured and moved back to Anamalai, leaving behind a trail of destruction.

"This is an exceptional case but there are many instances of human-elephant conflict that needs better coordination and cooperation between the three southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Ecological landscapes go beyond state boundaries. We need new and better ways for managing them," he said.

Several states have been facing the issue of man-animal conflict due to the shrinking of the forest land. Many people have lost their lives in such conflicts.