Nature’s Gardeners – The Elephants

The largest terrestrial mammal, the elephant, evolved over 60 million years ago. In India, Asian elephants can be seen in four fragmented populations: North, South, Central, and North-East India.

Elephants are the gardeners of the forest. These mega herbivores travel great distances distributing seeds, and removing obstacles pave way for smaller animals. Revered and iconic - Asian elephants today are threatened by shrinking spaces and conflict. We need wild elephants for healthy, balanced and growing forests.

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WWF INDIA’S INTERVENTION TO PROTECT ELEPHANTS

Since more than four decades, WWF India has been working to conserve elephant populations and their habitats. Currently our conservation efforts focus on three landscapes – Nilgiri Western Ghats, the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, Kaziranga and Karbi-Anglong and areas of the western Terai. With the collaborative efforts of forest departments, local communities and NGOs, WWF India is restoring and securing connectivity in elephant habitat landscapes. Our interventions include the following:

LOW COST SOLAR POWERED FENCES

More 42000 households in Assam have benefited from low-cost solar powered fences installed by WWF India across 129 villages in Assam. It helps villagers to protect their crops and are safe for elephants, unlike illegal fences that can electrocute them.

Early warning system

WWF India is setting up newly developed early warning system (EWS) in select places in Tamil Nadu. This system activates an alarm on sensing a large body in the surrounding area and alerts the villagers of a possible elephant attack intrusion.

Anti-depredation Squads

WWF India in collaboration with Assam Forest Department and local communities, has 100 ‘Anti Depredation Squads' working actively in 200 villages across Sonitpur district. These squads are trained to drive away the wild elephants from human habitats using searchlights, firecrackers and Kunki elephants.

Bamboo plants to the rescue

Bambusa bambos, the Indian thorny bamboo, a thorny, thick and sturdy species of bamboo acts as a natural fence that requires little financial capital and proves to be a life-saver for both humans and elephants. WWF India has been conducting training on the bamboo plantation in the Sessa Tea Estate for garden representatives.

Education & awareness

WWF India's environment education programme Ek Prithvi is conducted in the government schools located in the regions with elephant-human conflict in partnership with the state education department. The interventions under the programme include capacity building of educators and school heads to deal with this sensitive issue for the students and through them spread awareness among the communities. WWF India has published multiple publications under the programme that includes the handbook 'Elephants-The Super Creatures'.