Conservation Issues & WWF's Interventions
Conservation Issues
Habitat loss and conflict with humans:
As human populations grow and people settle in areas that were once the domain of elephants, human-elephant conflicts are becoming increasingly common leading to retaliatory killings of elephants. At present, this is amongst the biggest threats to the survival of Asian elephants in the wild. As forest cover becomes fragmented, elephants raid plantations and crop fields in their quest for food or for moving between forest patches. They uproot and scatter other plants, trees, and groundcover as they forage. This puts them in direct conflict with farmers settling in elephant habitat. A single elephant can devastate a small farmer's crop holding in one feeding raid. This makes elephants the target of retaliatory killings, especially when people are injured or killed.
Poaching:
Even where suitable habitat exists, poaching remains a threat to elephants. In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) banned the international trade in ivory. However, there are still some thriving but unmonitored domestic ivory markets in a number of Asian and other countries which fuel an illegal international trade.
Other Challenges:
Ground challenges include securing habitat corridors, management of HEC (human-elephant conflict) including preventing elephant deaths from trains and containing poaching as well as international trade.
As human populations grow and people settle in areas that were once the domain of elephants, human-elephant conflicts are becoming increasingly common leading to retaliatory killings of elephants. At present, this is amongst the biggest threats to the survival of Asian elephants in the wild. As forest cover becomes fragmented, elephants raid plantations and crop fields in their quest for food or for moving between forest patches. They uproot and scatter other plants, trees, and groundcover as they forage. This puts them in direct conflict with farmers settling in elephant habitat. A single elephant can devastate a small farmer's crop holding in one feeding raid. This makes elephants the target of retaliatory killings, especially when people are injured or killed.
Poaching:
Even where suitable habitat exists, poaching remains a threat to elephants. In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) banned the international trade in ivory. However, there are still some thriving but unmonitored domestic ivory markets in a number of Asian and other countries which fuel an illegal international trade.
Other Challenges:
Ground challenges include securing habitat corridors, management of HEC (human-elephant conflict) including preventing elephant deaths from trains and containing poaching as well as international trade.
Male elephant in musth-musth is a state where males are unusually agressive and is characterized by the discharge from the musth gland
WWF-India’s interventions:
The cornerstone of WWF work is to secure elephant habitat as large tracts of interlinking forests through its AREAS (Asian Rhino and Elephant Action Strategy) programme, which was launched in 2005. WWF-India is focusing its conservation efforts across four landscapes – Nilgiri Western Ghats, the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, Kaziranga and Karbi-Anglong and areas of the western Terai.
WWF-India has been working towards restoring or securing connectivity in habitat landscapes with participation of local communities. Conflict mitigation measures like community fencing, non-destructive management of crop-raiding elephants and use of chemical repellents like chilly have been taken up to meet the challenge. Strategic support is being provided to the forest department to implement anti-poaching measures. Moreover, steps are being taken to generate general public and political will.
WWF-India has been working towards restoring or securing connectivity in habitat landscapes with participation of local communities. Conflict mitigation measures like community fencing, non-destructive management of crop-raiding elephants and use of chemical repellents like chilly have been taken up to meet the challenge. Strategic support is being provided to the forest department to implement anti-poaching measures. Moreover, steps are being taken to generate general public and political will.
