With the forest areas of Paonta Sahib Forest Division, bordering Haryana and Uttarakhand, witnessing regular intrusion of wild elephants, the need to include these areas as an integral component of the existing Shivalik Elephant Corridor has become increasingly significant. It will not only conserve the tuskers but also prevent increasing human-elephant conflicts.
Herds of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) from Rajaji National Park have been periodically foraying into Himachal Pradesh from Uttarakhand after crossing the Yamuna river and Kalesar in Haryana. Then, they enter the Behral, Satiwala, Batamandi beats of Majra forest range in Paonta Sahib Forest Division.
Elephant corridors are narrow, linear, natural habitat linkages that allow the tuskers to move freely between secure habitats without causing human-elephant conflict. Tuskers require free movement to maintain genetic flow and offset seasonal variations in the availability of food and water.
Research lends credence to the fact that the more degraded a forest habitat is, the farther an elephant herd has to roam to meet its basic needs.
Being large herbivores, elephants require vast landscapes to roam freely in search of food and water with the changing seasons. The “home range” of an elephant herd can vary from an average of about 250 sq km in places like Rajaji National Park, suggest researchers.
The increased movement into areas close to human habitations often leads to human-elephant conflict in which both humans as well as elephants suffer. Significantly, the Elephant Corridors of India (2023) list has identified the Shivalik Elephant Corridor as an important landscape-level corridor facilitating elephant movement across the Shivalik region.
However, the areas within Himachal Pradesh that are regularly utilised by elephants as part of this movement pathway have not been adequately represented. In view of the established and continuing use of these areas by elephants, officials of the Forest Department are endeavouring to seek inclusion of corresponding forest and wildlife areas of Himachal Pradesh as an integral component of the existing ‘Shivalik Elephant Corridor’.
They buttress their claim from field observations, camera trap records, monitoring reports that indicate that this landscape has consistently been used by the elephants during the past several years, particularly since 2022.
The movement route forms a critical habitat linkage between the elephant-bearing landscapes of Haryana, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and serves as an key passage for dispersal and seasonal movement of elephants.
Supported by scientific and field evidence like heat map depicting elephant presence and distribution in the area since 2022; interstate movement tracks indicating elephant movement between Uttarakhand, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh; besides research papers and scientific literature documenting elephant movement, the officials are vying to get the area notified as an Elephant Corridor.
Elaborating upon its significance, Aditya Sharma, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Paonta Sahib, says, “Inclusion of the Himachal Pradesh component within the existing Shivalik Elephant Corridor will give a major boost to landscape-level conservation planning besides facilitating inter-state coordination and enhancing habitat connectivity. This status will also effectively contribute towards long-term conservation of elephants in the north-western range of their distribution.”
“An integration towards harmonious coexistence would connect the protected areas with adjoining buffers into a greater sustainable landscape with mitigation adaptations, crucial for long-term conservation,” observes Sharma.
Officials cite the ‘Indian Forester’, a significant journal on tropical forestry, to buttress their claim as it elaborates on how tuskers have been regularly foraying into the forest area of Himachal Pradesh.
Paonta Sahib is the southernmost region of Himachal Pradesh located at the foothills of western Himalayas which shares its boundary with three states — Haryana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and is significantly contiguous to two protected areas — Kalesar National Park, Haryana, and Col Sherjung National Park, Himachal.
The elephant landscape encompasses a significant area of 13,005-hectare land with 9,777-hectare area lying in the Majra Range of Paonta Division and the remaining 3,228 hectares in the neighbouring Kolar Range of Nahan Division.
A human population of 44,000 spread across 30 villages covering 9,495 households are the immediate sufferers as agriculture is their key source of livelihood. Forest dependence is also high with 21 villages having fuel wood and other forest-dependent rights inside the eco-sensitive zone spread across the Col Sher Jung National Park, Simbalbara. As 67 Gujjar and Gaddi graziers — having nomadic pastoralists permits — have settlements in fringe forest areas, it makes them vulnerable to human-elephant conflict.
Recognising the need to introduce conservation measures, funds were provided under ‘Project Elephant’ which enabled the department to adopt measures to minimise conflicts through early warning systems and a slew of awareness drives. From a perceptible hostility existing prior to this project, the residents are gradually accepting the tusker presence in their vicinity even as the need to preserve their habitat and addressing genetic concerns by preventing inbreeding in the small sized elephant herd is the pressing need of the hour.
