Dear All,
Dr M Ananda Kumar, an Asian elephant expert and recipient of Whitley Award
for Nature aka Oscar of conservation science will be among us on 15
November 2016. Please find appended the details of his talk.
Speaker: Dr M Ananda Kumar, Nature Conservation Foundation
Venue: Conference Hall, MCB Building, Cotton College
Date: 15 November 2016
Time: 1130 hr to 1230 hr
Title of the Talk: Promoting human-elephant coexistence: potential benefits
of technological interventions in contested landscapes
Abstract: Understanding human-elephant interactions is critical for
conservation of elephants outside Protected Areas. Conflict incidents
frequently lead to use of reactive measures such as chasing elephants,
capture and translocation, or retaliatory persecution, but these often fail
to resolve conflicts on a sustained basis, empower communities to implement
solutions or help conservation of elephants.
In India, an average of 400 people and 100 elephants losing their lives due
to intense human-elephant conflict annually. This has resulted in episodic
removal of elephants as a measure of conflict resolution and strained
human-elephant relationships in altered landscapes. I share our work from
three landscape matrices of forest-agriculture-plantations of Valparai
plateau in the Anamalai hills, Coimbatore Forest Division, and Alur region
in Hassan. Loss of life in direct encounters with elephants is one of the
primary issues in these three regions. I discuss about spatial and temporal
patterns of human fatalities and circumstances that led to loss of life due
to elephants in these landscapes. Based on our experience from the Valparai
plateau, developing an*Elephant Information Network* (EIN) with suitable
early warning systems (eg: TV crawls, bulk SMS, voice calls, mobile
operated beacons, and bus broadcast systems) to alert people of elephant
presence in advance and involving local communities help mitigate
human-elephant conflict and also may develop people's acceptance of
elephants as a part of landscape. Our study suggests that a shift from
conventional reactive strategies of *problem animal* approach to
pro-active *problem
location* approach with sustained participation by stakeholders could pave
way for coexistence in modified landscapes.
Hoping to see you all.
Warmest regards,
Narayan
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narayan sharma phd
assistant professor and head i/c
department of environmental biology and wildlife sciences
cotton college state university
pan bazar, guwahati - 781001, assam
phone: +91 80956 47720; +91 78969 51705
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