------- Published in The Hindu's travel segment on Sep 7th 2017- http://www.thehindu.
-------Published in the Field
Notes section of online portal NatureinFocus in Oct 2017- https://www.natureinfocus.in/
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| Elephants spotted near NR Pura Range by Sumanth |
The data collection for the 2017 Synchronised Asian Elephant Population
Estimation for South India concluded in the month of May. I was fortunate to
participate as a volunteer in this mammoth task. This exercise is conducted by the Forest
Department once in five years. It is done in a synchronized manner at a
pan-India level such that the elephants in connected forests spanning across
states can be counted in a single go, thus avoiding duplication.
As a run-up to the actual estimation, the
Forest Department spent considerable time in calling forth volunteers and
providing them with the necessary training.
This was done on multiple days across several locations – Bangalore, Mysore,
Chikmagalur, and Dandeli. A record
number of 550 volunteers and around 150 Resource people offered their services
– students, IT professionals, doctors, lawyers, home makers; all belonging to
different walks of life but untied in the common cause of forest conservation and
protection of wild life.
In addition, the Department communicated
the uniform methodology to be followed by all its cadres, especially to the
Forest Officers, Guards and Watchers, to have them in a battle-ready mode for
undertaking this huge exercise. A good
amount of training was given to them and the Forest Department ensured that all
necessary documents and equipment were kept ready.
The Forest Department’s raison-d’etre for
inviting public participation in this exercise is to provide transparency into
the process of estimating the elephant population. Common people get an opportunity to
understand and appreciate the time and efforts involved in coordinating and
executing a task of this kind. Also,
after watching and witnessing the large-scale efforts, all volunteers become
the extended voice of the Forest Department – volunteers willingly appreciate
and support the Forest Department’s wildlife conservation projects and
activities and act as their ambassadors and spokespersons.
After imparting training, all the
volunteers and Resource people were assigned to different forest divisions in
the state (like Bannerghatta, Kabini, Nagarhole, Bhadra Sanctuary, Dandeli). Again, this was a huge task – taking the
requirements of each Forest Range based on its size, matching them with the
personal preference of the volunteers and finally allotting each individual to
a Division.
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| Volunteers to Koppa - Sudhir, Sumanth, Prashanth and I |
I
was asked to report to Koppa Division near Chikmagalur.
Day
1 – Planning and selecting Forest Beats
Our team of 5 landed in Koppa on the
morning of May 16th 2017. The
place was beautiful, filled with plenty of greenery and lush vegetation. As we drove down from Bangalore, the
rain-washed roads welcomed us. A gentle
mist enveloped the trees and bushes which gave a surreal beauty to the
place.
We freshened up in the Forest Guest House
in Koppa. After a hearty breakfast, we
met up with the Deputy Conservator of Forests - Koppa Division, and his
officials to plan the exercise in his division.
The entire forest range in the division was
first clearly mapped out into an Elephant Distribution map. All 5 volunteers were then assigned to each
of the forest ranges in Koppa. One went
to Chikka Agrahara, two more were assigned to N.R. Pura, while two of us were
asked to take up Balehonnur. Again here,
while assigning the ranges, the DCF ensured that all volunteers were housed in
comfortable guest houses. Lady volunteers were given priority to the best of
the lot, keeping safety and comfort factors in mind.
Each range, for easy manageability, was
further divided into Compartments or Beats.
We spent some time in selecting the Beats (those where the Forest staff
had prior knowledge of the presence of elephants) and also in selecting areas
that fulfilled the requisite sample size of 5 Sq.Km. So
finally after the planning exercise, I was assigned to Antavalli Beat while Prashanth was assigned to Devadana Beat in the Balehonnur
Range.
After the crucial planning exercise, we met
with all the field staff and had a quick training session to get everyone on
the same page. This was very important
especially since data was being collected by different people from across all the
Forest ranges. All of us had to
understand and ensure that our data was uniform and could be collated correctly
as per the common requirement.
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| River Bhadra flowing next to the Forest Bungalow |
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| The 120-year old Forest Bungalow in Magundi |
After a relaxed lunch exchanging interesting
anecdotes with the CCF and other Forest officials, we then moved to our
respective Beat areas. Prashanth and I set out to the Forest
Bungalow situated in a quaint little village called Magundi. This is an
absolutely picturesque place. Our guest
house was situated within a sprawling Nursery and had the River Bhadra flowing
next to it. The building itself was
built during the British times and had a simple, elegant old-world charm about
it. This is paradise to a bird-watcher –
Prashanth identified several birds and indicated them - the pied wagtail, the
noisy warblers, sunbirds, robins, flycatchers, the drongo, and the beautiful
“Bharadwaj’, cousin of the common crow.
In addition, there were quite a number of peacocks that flew from one
side of the river bank to the other, while loudly letting out their plaintive
cries. In fact, every morning we awoke to
the vastly different chirping sounds of our feathered friends!
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| Inside Antavalli Beat |
Day
-2 Direct Block Count – Spotting and taking count of elephants in the sample
block area to determine elephant population density
Early the next morning, I set out to the
Antavalli Beat along with Forest Officer Arif Pasha, Bhimappa Naik, Forest
Guards and watchers – Abhilash and Ajay.
A local tribesman who lived in the fringes of the forest and who knew
every inch of it – Yellanna, accompanied us.
Our plan was to traverse the entire 5 sq km
stretch of our Beat in an undulating mode. We ascended the slopes, zigzagged our way through
the hilly terrain, cut through thorny bushes, weeds and lantana. We passed through patches of blackened areas
– where the forest fire had eaten into the trees and bushes and charred the
region. We found several piles of
elephant dung, in different stages of de-composition indicating that the
pachyderms were indeed criss-crossing their way through the forest. We found several incidences of their activity
– broken branches, trees in a semi-uprooted condition, their huge foot prints on fresh mud and
ofcourse their dung piles. Some of the
dung piles were quite a few days old with mushrooms sprouted on them.
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| Elephant dung |
The plan for the day was to walk the entire
Beat area and spot elephants. We covered
more than 10 Kms but despite seeing so much activity, we did not spot an
elephant. Arif explained that our Beat
was the elephant corridor area – quite a few elephants passed through this
forest area to reach their final destination.
Hence, we could witness their presence and movement but could not
actually see them.
We had breakfast in the forest – packed and
carried thoughtfully by the Forest guards.
We found tiger pug marks, saw tiger scat (tiger’s droppings), some wild
hens, found a beautiful quill of a porcupine, and ofcourse got bitten by the
leeches. The small, slimy worms got onto
our shoes, made their way up the socks and sucked blood from all possible
places.
We got back to the Guest House, tired and
bloodied but exhilarated by the day’s action.
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| With the team - Ajay, Jinjanna, Yellanna, Abhilash, Arif Pasha and I |
Day
– 3 Line Transect Method to assess the density of elephant dung in the selected
area within the Sample Block
The next morning, accompanied by the same
forest staff, I headed back to Antavalli Forest Beat. The plan for the day was to do a Line
Transect to assess the density of elephant dung piles over a selected 2 km
range. We had to do this across a
straight path and inspect the surrounding area to determine if we could spot
dung piles. The perpendicular distance
of the dung pile from the straight line on which we were moving had to be
measured and recorded. We took 50 metre measurements,
capturing the GPS locations and used a compass to ensure that we were indeed
going in a straight line.
The task was quite arduous; we had to cut
through thick, thorny bushes; make our way around fallen and broken branches.
Several times, we tripped on wild creepers when our shoe got caught in it. Added
to it, we covered an entire 2-km uphill, steep stretch. Abhilash, the young Forest Guard was bitten
by a couple of wasps and his lips and cheeks swelled up immediately. But despite the hard labour involved, the
sights and sounds of the forest made it interesting. A lone sambar deer rushed past us when it
heard us approach. We saw some brightly-hued beetles; we stopped
to pluck and eat some fresh oranges.
Day
-4 Spotting elephants and capturing their demographic profile
On Day 4, our job was to visit the places
in our Beat area where the elephant was most likely to be present. Based on their experience, the Forest staff
knew all the possible places that elephants generally visited - like
water-holes, salt-licks and river banks, elephant road-crossing points. We were directed to take pictures, profile
the pachyderms and classify them based on their sex - female, male; on their
relative size – adult, sub-adult, juvenile and calf. This exercise would help the Forest
Department in estimating the ratio of male and female elephants in the herd and
give precious foresight into determining if the elephant numbers would grow healthily
in the coming years.
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| Searching for elephants alongside the banks of the Bhadra river |
As the Antavalli Beat did not have any
elephant sightings, I joined Prashanth to visit the Devadana Beat. It had rained quite heavily the previous
night, and we were skeptical about spotting elephants. But the Forest Officer of Devadana Beat,
Manjunath was positive and took us through the forest. He carried a machete with him and cut through
bushes and weeds as we made our way through the adjoining coffee estate into
the forest.
We walked alongside the Bhadra River to
check on water-hole presence but the elephants were not there. We got news that the locals had seen an
elephant in the wee hours of the morning; Forest Officer Manjunath was
immediately on its trail. We followed
him through the estate where the elephant had cut down jackfruits; it had also
broken a few areca-nut trees to eat the pulp in the middle of the tree. We followed its foot prints into the thick
jungle. It had very smartly crossed over the
solar-powered electric fence by dropping a wooden branch on the wire and ‘short
circuiting’ the current. Manjunath asked
us to stay close and remain quiet. It
was quite an adventure; we were adrenaline-charged, hoping to see the elephant
but also a little apprehensive about following it into its lair. After all, we were in the wild and a lone
elephant can be quite dangerous. We
slowly made our way, following all the signs that the elephant had left of its
progress into the forest. But sadly,
even after several hours of being on its trail, we could not spot the elephant.
Forest Officer Manjunath was the most
disappointed of us all – he was convinced that it was still there but somehow had
eluded us. And he was quite right. Later in the evening, he and a few other
Forest guards saw not just one but two elephants coming out of the same place
that we had visited earlier in the
morning! Manjunath was jubilant; he
quickly profiled them and recorded the findings.
Thus, our 4-day highly eventful trek in the
forests came to an end. It may have been
tiring – we had cuts and bruises and plenty of leech bites; but all that added
to the overall allure to make it memorable.
We also gained great insights into the
workings of the Forest Department and have now a new-found respect and
admiration for the ground staff; their jobs are not easy but the passion and
interest they exhibit for wildlife protection and forest conservation is
admirable.
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| After ascending 1150 metres - view from the top |
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