Elephanticide :
India’s ironic apathy towards its most
culturally revered
mammal.
The following essay is
presented in a paragraphic format –
1. Introduction: Elephants offer symbolic,
religious and an antediluvian sense of
sociological appeal for India, often
crucial to our evolved sense of cultural identity.
Motion picture, public media, traditional
and even institutional tropes reflect our intimate
affinity with the mammal that has showcased
long-recorded behavioral tendencies of
familial bonding, with often humanizing
displays of parental affection, which is
poignantly emblematic and reflective of our
own dispositions. It would not be an
overestimation of narrative rhetoric to
state that the Elephant has been designated as
India’s National Heritage Animal. Perhaps
the most cruel paradox lies in the fact that the
Indian Railways, led by its iconic mascot -
the train manager “Bholu”, an Asian elephant
(Elephas Maximus), is domestically responsible
for the largest number of train accidents
involving elephants in the world, with
hundreds of an already dwindling endangered
species, killed over the course of the past
two (2) decades. No other species of wild
animals have recorded identical statistical
levels of unnatural death in single locomotive/
industrial incidents as do elephants due to
almost regular collisions with oncoming trains.
Although these deaths are for the most part
geographically limited to Central and Eastern India, it has been recorded that a striking number of thirty
(30) elephants were
killed by locomotive
collisions between 2013 and 2017 in the state of WestBengal1. Additionally within a
time span of 2004 to 2015, elephant
fatalities were numbered at 65 from locomotive causations alone, according to
the
estimations of
environmentalists2. On a concluding note of contextual
perspective, five
elephants encountered a similar fate in Assam in
December 2017, after
suffering from a direct collision with an oncoming
train while the herd was
crossing the railway track.3 One identifiable reason for
elephants
dying en masse has been attributed to the collective psychology of the herd
that produces effort to
save
its distressed members from incoming danger. As India’s human population continues to
multiply exponentially over the past
several decades, it is correlated with an expansion of
demands for subsistent resources, which
essentially entails land, required for housing
construction and agricultural cultivation,
as an element of an ecological landscape that is spatially encumbered by
associated human industrial activities such as roadways, rail
corridors, mines and dams, which are
intended to facilitate sociological performance and
per capital economic productivity at the
steep cost of a consistently degenerating local
biosphere. The
aforementioned “linear infrastructures”, restrict the movement of wildlife
populations by
fragmenting
their habitat, increasing edge effects, constricting ecological corridors,
inhibiting animal
movement
and increasing the risk of mortality due to direct collisions with motorized or
locomotive
vehicles.4
These processes not only inhibit habitat connectivity within a landscape, which
is required for
spatial
dispersal and re-colonization, essential for maintaining regional metapopulations
and minimizing
risks
of inbreeding within populations5,
but additionally hinders the persistence of species in humandominated
landscapes,
as isolated and diminutive populations are more vulnerable to extinction from
stochastic
demographic processes and loss of genetic variation.6
2. As per the most recent estimates, India has the largest
number of wild Asian
elephants in the world,
estimated at 27,312 according to the 2017 census7,
which roughly accounts for 55% of the
species’ global population. They subsist across 29
Elephant Reserves spread over 10 elephant
landscapes in 14 states, spanning 65,814 sq
kms of forests in the northeast, central,
north-west and south India. However, contrary to
public knowledge and belief, Elephant
Reserves in India are not legally protected habitats,
which ensures protection of its inhabitants
from any external human interference.
Elephant Reserves for the most part are
inclusive of areas of human use and habitation.
This results in Elephant Reserves being
overwhelmingly vulnerable and susceptible to
unregulated human encroachment and unlawful
poaching or hunting.
3. At the existing scale of
industrialization and its longstanding ramifications on the
adjoining biosphere, India faces a grave
concern of train-wildlife collisions. The primary
perpetrator and cause of such a foreboding
crises is the Indian Railways (IR). With its
ironic Asian elephant mascot, it is one of
the world’s largest railway networks, comprising
115,000 kms of tracks over a route of
approximately 65,000 km and 7500 stations.8 In
2015-1016, the Indian Railways was credited
with transporting more than 22,000,000
passengers and 3,000,000 tons of freight on
a daily basis.9 Furthermore, the Indian
Railway network spans and cuts across a
multitude of forested landscapes, and its
consequent impacts on the local wildlife
and the ecosystem at large has remained a matter
of increasing concern among environmental
scientists and activists alike. In order to cope
up with and address the increasing
logistical requirements of a progressively
industrializing landscape and demands of a
modernizing and expanding society, the
direct and indirect impacts of the airways
have exacerbated over the years with the
expansion of the rail network, gauge
conversion, and locomotive velocity and frequency.
Locomotive-elephant collisions, owing to
their common occurrence, have become
normalized along certain rail corridors
which traverse through elephant sanctuaries, such
as the Siliguri-Alipurduar Line in Northern
West Bengal10, Guwahati-Lumding Line inAssam and Meghalaya ,
Haridwar-Dehradun 11 Line in
Uttarakhand12, Coimbatore-
Thrissur Line in Tamil Nadu and Kerala13.
4. To effectively convey the extent of
elephant fatalities caused by locomotives and the sheer number of
accidents
involving elephants along the aforesaid rail corridors, 18 elephant deaths were
recorded at Rajaji
National
Park, Uttarakhand, between 1987 and 200114, 35 deaths in Assam from
1987 to 200615,
16
in Odisha16 and 13 elephant deaths in Tamil Nadu
between 2002 and 201317.
5. Remedial initiatives undertaken by
institutional agencies include the National Board of
Wildlife’s recent propositional
announcement of funding a mitigation plan for all projects
in sanctuaries, national parks and
eco-sensitive zones, to restrict wildlife mortality
resulting from linear infrastructural
projects such as road and rail corridors.18 However,
what is required is to identify and enact
mitigation measures in all conflict hotspots,
without being limited to just proximate
protected areas. A letter drafted in February 2018
by the Sanctuary Nature Foundation to
Piyush Goyal, the Union Railway Minister, states,
“Elephants are impacted in the East-Central
India belt of Odisha, Jharkhand and
Chhattisgarh because of devastation of
elephant habitat and corridors by iron ore and coal mining and industrial
development.” As a mitigation 19 measure, the letter
recommends leveling steep mounds adjacent
to railway lines, which may act as probable
hindrance to any escape attempt and
clearing forest vegetation, adjoining the railway line
for enabling drivers to observe and notice
the movement of elephants. There is conclusive
evidence to support that methodological
mitigation can effectively work. It’s nature can be
deducible at two particular forms –
5.1. Built mitigation - Entailing underpasses or
tunnels which facilitate the unhindered and
unrestricted movement of wild-life in human
interspersed biomes and,
5.2. Preventive mitigation - Conduction of patrolling and
clearing patrol routes.
Case study reference - A railway line passing through Rajaji
National Park in
Uttarakhand had recorded multiple incidents
of mass elephant fatalities, which was
halted with the implementation and
installment for basic passage and mitigation
measures.20 These remedial measures included the
erection of warning signs, sanctioning
of strolling teams for elephants,
moderation of steep embankments and clearing of
adjoining vegetation along the railway
tracks.
6. The next step in identifying the
causality and determining the remedial mitigation, is
geographically and conclusively ascertaining
the mortality hotspots. Identifying mortality
hotspots is a critical indicator of areas
where elephant habitats are interspersed with highspeed
rail corridors. A study published in 2017
noted that “broad gauge allows traits to
reach higher velocities, making it harder
for elephants to avoid a moving train”, and that,
after gauge conversions, the maximum speed
of trains increased from 60 kmph to 100
kmph”. In addition to the hotspots, the
study observed upon that most accidents occur at
night, suggesting that limiting train
operation after sunset and constructing underpasses
or tunnels for reducing restrictions in
wildlife crossing could reduce casualties in the
area.217. In light of the
current situation involving the need to conserve ecological life and
resources, and to restrict unwarranted
human encroachment into biomes and ecological
habitats, the real danger lies in elephant
passageways situated outside the protected areas.
The
Supreme Court as a part of an ongoing PIL (Public Interest Litigation) has
directed the Centre to find
a
solution to reduce elephant deaths in designated corridors. “We cannot tell the
elephants where they
should
go....they must have a corridor,” an apex court bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur
and Justice
Deepak
Gupta has observed on 6th of April, 2018, with Add. Solicitor General A.N.S
Nadkarni
representing
the Central Government.22
8. Conclusion: Elephants are considered as a keystone
species.
Their nomadic behavior
involving daily and seasonal migrations
across different home ranges is of the utmost
consequence to the local environment. A few
of the many ways elephants contribute to
the environment are:
8.1.
Elephants
eliminate vegetative overgrowth by clearing forests as they migrate,
allowing the regeneration of new plant
species on which herbivores subsist on.
8.2.
Elephants
consume plants, fruits and seeds, and through open defecation, contribute
to distribution of various plant species,
through seed dispersal mechanisms which
benefits the local biodiversity.
8.3.
Elephant
dung acts as a source of nutrition to animals and nourishment to plants
8.4.
Elephants
provide water under the circumstances of drought, by digging holes,
therefore benefitting other wildlife.
8.5.
Elephant
carcasses provide source of nourishment for other animals and offers
regenerative flaura and fauna growth after
decomposition.
Therefore to have elephants confined to
isolated populations, restricted from freely moving
through their home ranges and within their
own habitats by unregulated human activities, will
have devastating repercussions on India’s
natural heritage. The absence of elephants would
unalterably destabilize the existing
ecological structure, with its severe ramifications faced by not
just the local wildlife, but also ourselves.
References:
1. 30 elephants killed by trains in West
Bengal in 5 yrs, no action against staff: Gohain, Indian Express Report, PTI
Report, January 5th, 2018.
2. Speeding Train Plows Into
Elephants in India, Killing 5 Animals, By Jeffrey Gettleman, Suhasini Raj and Kai
Schultz, NYT, Feb. 12, 2018
3 Five elephants killed by train in India,
December 11, 2017;
4 Forman, R. T. T., & Deblinger, R. D.
(2000). The ecological road-effect zone of a Massachusetts (USA) suburban
highway. Conservation Biology, 14, 36–46; Trombulak, S. C., &
Frissell, C. A. (2000). Review of ecological effects of
roads on terrestrial and aquatic
communities. Conservation
Biology, 14, 18–30.
5 Newmark, W. (1987). A land–bridge island
perspective on mammalian extinctions in western American parks.
Nature,
325, 430–432;
Wilcove, D. S., Rothstrin, D., Dubow, J., Philips, A., & Locos, E. (1998).
Quantifying threats to
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48, 607–615.
6 Soule, M. E., & Wilcox, B. A. (Eds.).
(1980). Conservation biology: An evolutionary-ecological perspective.
Sunderland, MA: Sinauer.
8 Indian Railways. (2014). Statistical
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http://indianrailways.gov.in/railwayboard/uploads/directorate/stat_econ/IRSP_201314/pdf/
Statistical_Summary/Summary%20Sheet_Eng.pdf
9 Government of India. (2015). Indian
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Railways New Delhi.
10 Roy, M., Baskaran, N., & Sukumar, R.
(2009). The death of jumbos on railway lines in northern West Bengal.
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31, 36–39.
11Sarma, U. K., Easa, P. S.,
& Menon, V. (2006). Deadly lines: A scientific approach to understanding
and mitigating
elephant mortality due to train hits in
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12 Singh, A. K., Kumar, A., Mookerjee, A.,
& Menon, V. (2001). Jumbo express: A scientific approach to
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no. 3). New Delhi: Wildlife Trust of India
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13 Jha, N., Sarma, K., & Bhattacharya, P.
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Coimbatore railway stretch of Kerala and
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&
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14 Singh, A. K., Kumar, A., Mookerjee, A.,
& Menon, V. (2001). Jumbo express: A scientific approach to
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mortality due to train accidents in Rajaji National Park (Occasional Report
no. 3). New Delhi: Wildlife Trust of India.
15 Sarma, U. K., Easa, P. S., & Menon, V.
(2006). Deadly lines: A scientific approach to understanding and mitigating
elephant mortality due to train hits in
Assam (Occasional Report no. 24). New Delhi: Wildlife Trust of India.
16 Palai, N. C., Bhakta, P. R., & Kar, C.
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Gajah,
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17 Jha, N., Sarma, K., & Bhattacharya, P.
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Coimbatore railway stretch of Kerala and
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&
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18 Animal passage plan mandatory now for
infrastructural projects, Nidhi Sharma, ET Bureau; Feb. 10, 2018.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/animal-passage-plan-mandatory-now-forinfrastructure-
projects/articleshow/62858155.cms
19http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/conservation/news/10770-wildlife-organisations-in-a-joint-letter-implore-therailway-
minister-to-act-on-the-rise-in-elephant-deaths-by-train-collisions
20 Safe passage for Elephants in Rajaji, By
Prerna Singh Bindra, Conservation India; January 19th, 2011.
21 Railways and Wildlife: A Case Study of
Train-Elephant Collisions in Northern West Bengal, India; Mukti Roy
and Raman Sukumar, Springer Publications;
22 A Rangarajan & Ors v.
Union of India & Ors.
- Samriddho Sen,
Department of Law, University of Calcutta,
