Coimbatore: Dr. G. Sivasubramanian, head of the Department of Wildlife Biology at Kongunadu Arts and Science College in Coimbatore, has said the studies on range extension by elephants in Oddanchatram forest range in Dindigul district is of greater relevance to the management of Asian elephant population not only for this area but also the adjoining landscape areas like ATR.
“Through the studies, it was concluded that the elephants mostly move through two different trails – either via the foothill forests that include Thekkanthottam to Pudukkottai village in Oddanchatram limits or crop fields route that includes Thekkanthottam to Periya Ayyampalli pond,” he said.
“Therefore, a new range extension by elephants into Oddanchatram frorest range could be viewed as a unique case to derive management implications for elephant conservation in the region,” he noted.
“Elephants being a wide-ranging species require large areas to forage. Once the habitat is fragmented or reduced in size, elephants become isolated and hemmed in small patches of forests surrounded by vast areas of agriculture crops and human habitations. For instance, Anamalai Tiger Reserve and Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary are crippled with various biological pressures such as fragmentation and conversion of large areas into tea gardens. This scenario could have forced the elephants to extend their range into new areas or resettle into the neighbouring habitat to avoid man-made pressures. Elephants could potentially range outside protected areas, survive in reasonable numbers in human-dominated landscapes and get benefit from forest agriculture matrices, despite pressures associated with anthropogenic landscapes,” said Sivasubramanian.
The other option could be to find new routes to go back into its traditional range to avoid various anthropogenic pressures, he pointed out.
Now, the elephant herds, instead of returning back, further extended its movement into the Dindigul forest division. Studies proved that the elephant herd moved up to Batlagundu forest range where two forest field staff were injured by one of these tuskers while they were involved in driving back these jumbos into their traditional range, during 2019. In a nutshell, it is clearly envisaged that the elephant herd is not turning back to its traditional range, instead, it keeps extending its range into new areas which are part of their ancient home range.
It could be inferred through this study that movement of elephants were recorded in this study area 200 years ago, which means these areas were then part of the annual seasonal home range of elephants in those days. It is astonishing that the elephants did not turn back to Oddanchatram jungle limits, their traditional range, for about 200 years. Since 2006, the herd, comprising 18 individuals, dispersed into their traditional part of home range and stayed back round the year, he said.
Therefore, the present study concluded that this can be a kind of geographical distribution range extension by elephants. To establish this, it should be scientifically studied for a couple of times more, Sivasubramanian added.
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