{"id":20075404,"date":"2021-07-05T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?post_type=opinion&#038;p=75404"},"modified":"2024-04-12T15:48:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T15:48:37","slug":"elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india","status":"publish","type":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephant reserves need protection from fossil fuel interests in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Asian elephant, the biggest land animal on the continent, needs space. Elephants\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/chapter\/10.1007\/978-981-10-6605-4_15\">home range<\/a> can be as large as 800 square kilometres. To create habitat for these huge endangered mammals, in the early 2000s the Indian government established elephant reserves, ranging in size from hundreds to a thousand square kilometres. Today, these reserves are under threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The state is pushing forward projects that will take chunks out of elephant habitat. As well as expanding infrastructure like airports, there is encroachment from coal and oil extraction. But citizens are starting to stand up for elephants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Assam has more than 5,700 elephants, and is the state with the highest number per square kilometre, according to the first ever national-level <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in\/files\/file\/Synchronized%20Elephant%20Population%20Estimation%20India%202017.pdf\">elephant census<\/a> undertaken in 2017. An Assamese is far more likely to see an elephant than any other person in India, making elephant reserves an emotive issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently, these contending forces clashed in Assam \u2013 with a surprising outcome. The government was considering opening up Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve to coal mining, but colourful, sustained and determined <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/north-east-india\/assam\/amid-protests-north-eastern-coalfields-temporarily-suspends-work-6447540\/\">protests<\/a> by locals forced a turnaround.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-citizens-intervene-in-dehing-patkai\">Citizens intervene in Dehing Patkai<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<a class=\"wp-block-cd-related-news alignright block--related-news loading\" data-post-id=\"20034407\"><div class=\"block--related-news__image\"><\/div><div class=\"block--related-news__content\"><span class=\"block--related-news__heading\">Recommended<\/span><span class=\"block--related-news__title\"><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n<p>Braided by the Dehing river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve covers an area of 937 square kilometres. It includes complex rainforest aflush with orchids, birds, tigers and elephants. The towering hollong (the state tree of Assam), the white-winged wood duck (the state bird) and the foxtail orchid (the state flower) are all found here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since 2003, this area, and its inhabitants, has been threatened by illegal coal mining. Coal India Limited (CIL) <a href=\"https:\/\/thewire.in\/environment\/assam-cm-orders-judicial-probe-illegal-coal-mining-dehin-patkai\">was fined<\/a> for this in 2019. Yet in a meeting in April 2020, India\u2019s National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) recommended that CIL should still be awarded a contract to mine in the area, as long as it fulfilled certain conditions. One of the reasons mining should continue in the area, the NBWL said, is because it has already been broken up by mining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Citizens, already incensed over illegal coal mining in the past, <a href=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/tag\/activism\/\">protested<\/a> at demonstrations and on social media. Hashtags like \u201cI am Dehing Patkai\u201d spread quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<a class=\"wp-block-cd-related-news alignright block--related-news loading\" data-post-id=\"20042191\"><div class=\"block--related-news__image\"><\/div><div class=\"block--related-news__content\"><span class=\"block--related-news__heading\">Recommended<\/span><span class=\"block--related-news__title\"><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<a class=\"wp-block-cd-related-news block--related-news loading\" data-post-id=\"20038424\"><div class=\"block--related-news__image\"><\/div><div class=\"block--related-news__content\"><span class=\"block--related-news__heading\">Recommended<\/span><span class=\"block--related-news__title\"><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The pressure was enough that Sarbananda Sonowal, chief minister of Assam, declared in July 2020 that Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary, a 111-square-kilometre protected area within the elephant reserve, would be made into a national park \u2013 a designation even higher than a sanctuary. In June 2021, nearly a year later, Assam\u2019s forest minister Parimal Suklabaidya said at a <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/north-east-india\/assam\/two-new-national-parks-dehing-patkai-and-raimona-notified-in-assam-7351595\/\">press conference<\/a> that the sanctuary had been notified as a national park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, two other facts are immediately clear. First, Dehing Patkai has had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/nation\/2020\/sep\/18\/ngt-disposes-plea-challenging-approval-to-mining-in-assams-digboi-2198641.html\">illegal<\/a> coal mining. This urgently needs tackling. The Assam state government ordered a judicial probe in July 2020, but there seems to be little thinking on how to deal with such a major challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, elephants in Assam face pressure not just from coal mining, but also oil exploration in reserves. Oil India Limited (OIL) has secured clearances for oil exploration in Mechaki, part of the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cd-story-image block--story-image\" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><div class=\"block--story-image__column\"><div class=\"block--story-image__image\"><img class=\"lazy\" data-src=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/map-elephant-reserves-coal-oil-Assam.png\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/map-elephant-reserves-coal-oil-Assam-768x499.png 768w, https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/map-elephant-reserves-coal-oil-Assam-1024x665.png 1024w, https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/map-elephant-reserves-coal-oil-Assam-1400x910.png 1400w, https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/map-elephant-reserves-coal-oil-Assam-1800x1170.png 2000w, https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/map-elephant-reserves-coal-oil-Assam.png\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 768px, (max-width: 999px) 1024px, (max-width: 1400px) 1400px, (max-width: 2000px) 2000px, 4001px\" alt=\"map showing the proximity of oil and coal mines in Assam to elephant reserves\"\/><\/div><div class=\"block--story-image__content\"><div itemprop=\"caption\" class=\"block--story-image__caption\">Graphic: The Third Pole<\/div><\/div><\/div><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/map-elephant-reserves-coal-oil-Assam.png\"\/><meta itemprop=\"contentSize\" content=\"4 MB\"\/><meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"2600\"\/><meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"4001\"\/><meta itemprop=\"author\"\/><meta itemprop=\"representativeOfPage\" content=\"true\"\/><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>And elephant reserves are not just in danger in Assam. In January 2021, the state of Uttarakhand <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/nation\/2021\/jan\/12\/uttarakhand-hc-stays-governments-decision-to-denotify-shivalik-elephant-reserve-once-again-2249049.html\">denotified<\/a> the Shivalik Elephant Reserve to enable the expansion of Dehradun\u2019s Jolly Grant airport. After pushback from civil society, the Uttarakhand High Court <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/dehradun\/denotification-of-shivalik-hc-gives-chief-wildlife-warden-3-weeks-to-present-report-on-steps-taken-for-preservation-of-elephants-and-their-habibat\/articleshow\/81556392.cms\">asked<\/a> the state\u2019s chief wildlife warden to explain what measures will be put in place to preserve Shivalik reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of this raises the question: what does protection as an elephant reserve actually mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-elephant-reserves-mean-and-what-they-don-t\">What elephant reserves mean, and what they don\u2019t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Elephant reserves were declared as an administrative category by the government of India to demarcate large landscapes that hold elephants and their movements. The first elephant reserve was created in Jharkhand in 2001, and is spread over 4,529 square kilometres. There are now <a href=\"http:\/\/moef.gov.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/indias30.pdf\">30<\/a> elephant reserves in India, covering more than 65,000 square kilometres. About <a href=\"http:\/\/www.environmentandsociety.org\/sites\/default\/files\/key_docs\/Gajah.pdf\">30%<\/a> of them are legally protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These reserves were a means of land-use planning to \u201cprotect elephants, their habitat and corridors\u201d and to \u201caddress issues of man-animal conflict\u201d, <a href=\"http:\/\/moef.gov.in\/en\/forest-wildlife\/wildlife\/\">according to<\/a> the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. But this was understood as a \u2018soft instrument\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/india-news\/govt-seeks-legal-status-for-elephant-reserves\/story-m7JbFZJjv9NnmqSSLncb5L.html\">towards protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cd-pull-quote block--pull-quote\"><div class=\"block--pull-quote__wrapper\"><blockquote class=\"block--pull-quote__quote\">It is a huge problem that elephant reserves and elephant corridors do not have legal recognition<\/blockquote><cite class=\"block--pull-quote__cite\">Bibhuti Lahkar, conservationist<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>An elephant reserve does not have the formal legal protection of a sanctuary. They are not included in the <a href=\"https:\/\/legislative.gov.in\/sites\/default\/files\/A1972-53_0.pdf\">Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.<\/a> Under the act, only work for the protection of wildlife is allowed in wildlife sanctuaries, and people entering, or living within them, are strictly regulated. This is not true of elephant reserves, which are an administrative, not legal, category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because some of these areas are rich in coal and oil, there is pressure to allow mining in them. The government has tried to both maintain reserves and allow mining \u2013 with the result that the animals are losing out. Whether mining can ever be conducive to elephant conservation and the integrity of elephant reserves is being questioned: the National Green Tribunal, India\u2019s environmental court, is currently reviewing an appeal challenging the clearance given to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraphindia.com\/north-east\/national-green-tribunal-ngt-notice-on-oil-projects-in-upper-assams-tinsukia-district\/cid\/1792741\">Mechaki<\/a> in the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-elephant-reserves-need-stronger-protection\">Elephant reserves need stronger protection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While governments have a patchy record on protecting elephant reserves and corridors, some jurisprudence is showing the way. In a judgement last year on construction in an elephant corridor in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court of India <a href=\"https:\/\/main.sci.gov.in\/supremecourt\/2011\/19080\/19080_2011_40_1501_24383_Judgement_14-Oct-2020.pdf\">said<\/a>: \u201cWe have no hesitation in holding that in order to protect the elephant population in the Sigur Plateau region, it was necessary and appropriate for the state government to limit commercial activity in the areas falling within the elephant corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ritwick Dutta, an environmental lawyer and founder of the NGO Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), said elephant reserves need to be given importance even if they are not a part of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. \u201cThe fact that an area has been declared as an elephant reserve means that elephants should be at the centre stage while planning for the area. Merely because it is not a legal category or not constituted under a statute does not mean that it is of no consequence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, Dutta said, a state\u2019s cabinet is not a statutory&nbsp;or constitutional body. Nevertheless, nobody can deny their importance. Ideally, he said, \u201cThe long-term goal should be to include elephant reserves in the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-can-be-done\">What can be done?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Elephants need all the help they can get. In addition to fossil fuel projects, they face fencing and habitat fragmentation. In December 2020, three elephants <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/north-east-india\/assam\/assam-electric-fences-take-toll-pregnant-elephant-latest-casualty-7109250\/\">were killed<\/a> by electric fences; one was pregnant. In May 2021, 18 elephants were killed, reportedly by <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/when-lightning-struck-an-elephant-herd-7321655\/\">lightning strike<\/a> on an exposed mountainside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How then, can elephant reserves work as a category in Assam?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conservationist Kaushik Barua said: \u201cElephant&nbsp;reserves would only work if&nbsp;things are taken up at landscape level. Most of our elephants are in unprotected areas. We need to redraw our conservation actions based on how many elephants are there in a landscape, in relation with how much space they need to occupy. We need to secure, and keep secured, whatever is left of&nbsp;elephant&nbsp;areas. For this the judiciary would probably need to intervene to set things right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cd-pull-quote block--pull-quote\"><div class=\"block--pull-quote__wrapper\"><blockquote class=\"block--pull-quote__quote\">The long-term goal should be to include elephant reserves in the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972<\/blockquote><cite class=\"block--pull-quote__cite\">Ritwick Dutta, environmental lawyer<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is a huge problem that elephant reserves and elephant corridors do not have legal recognition,\u201d said Bibhuti Lahkar, a conservationist who works with NGO Aaranyak and is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Asian Elephant Specialist Group. He added: \u201cTo be able to conserve elephants, we need to understand their ecological needs. They are good grazers and browsers. We need to grow all manner of grasses and plants for them. This includes drier grasses, marshy grasses. The community looks at elephant as vermin \u2013 people need compensation for losses on time. We need to develop ownership within the community in elephant reserves, such as creating elephant squads which comprise local people, not outsiders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cd-article-image aligncenter block--article-image\" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><div class=\"block--article-image__column\"><div class=\"block--article-image__image\"><img class=\"lazy\" data-src=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/elephants-patrol-Pench-National-Park-Madhya-Pradesh-India-scaled.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/elephants-patrol-Pench-National-Park-Madhya-Pradesh-India-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/elephants-patrol-Pench-National-Park-Madhya-Pradesh-India-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/elephants-patrol-Pench-National-Park-Madhya-Pradesh-India-scaled.jpg 2560w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 768px, (max-width: 1024px) 1024px, 2560px\" alt=\"Forest department staff use elephants to patrol protected areas in Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh (Image: Neha Sinha)\"\/><\/div><div class=\"block--article-image__content\"><div itemprop=\"caption\" class=\"block--article-image__caption\">Forest department staff use elephants to patrol protected areas in Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh (Image: Neha Sinha)<\/div><\/div><\/div><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/elephants-patrol-Pench-National-Park-Madhya-Pradesh-India-scaled.jpg\"\/><meta itemprop=\"contentSize\" content=\"932 KB\"\/><meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"1920\"\/><meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"2560\"\/><meta itemprop=\"author\"\/><meta itemprop=\"representativeOfPage\" content=\"true\"\/><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>He also said government departments need to work together. \u201cCurrently, it is the forest department that works on elephants. We also need the active involvement of the electricity department, because one of the primary causes of unnatural elephant deaths is electrocution by illegal fencing. People are electrifying fences using hooks on main electricity lines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems unlikely that many more protected areas will be formed, as the process to notify them is long and the government appears keen to allow large extractive projects. As an immediate measure, restrictions on the use of land within elephant reserves can be imposed. One way to do this is under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, which empowers the central government to take all measures necessary to improve and protect the environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As fences come up, and miners move in, the elephants are still waiting for us to grant them space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recent events in Assam highlight legal and administrative threats to elephants\u2019 habitat, but also reveal the power of civil society, conservationists and environmental lawyers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20075411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[764],"tags":[523,539,547],"country":[20000111],"class_list":["post-20075404","opinion","type-opinion","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","tag-conservation","tag-endangered-species","tag-fossil-fuels","country-india"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Elephant reserves in India need protection from fossil fuel interests<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Elephant habitat is threatened by a lack of legal protection, but civil society, conservationists and environmental lawyers can help\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elephant reserves need protection from fossil fuel interests in India\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elephant habitat is threatened by a lack of legal protection, but civil society, conservationists and environmental lawyers can help\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dialogue Earth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-12T15:48:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/elephants-Kaziranga-National-Park-Assam-India-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india\/\",\"name\":\"Elephant reserves in India need protection from fossil fuel interests\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/elephants-Kaziranga-National-Park-Assam-India-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-05T07:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-12T15:48:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"Elephant habitat is threatened by a lack of legal protection, but civil society, conservationists and environmental lawyers can help\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/elephant-reserves-need-protection-from-fossil-fuel-india\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/elephants-Kaziranga-National-Park-Assam-India-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/elephants-Kaziranga-National-Park-Assam-India-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"An Asian elephant and her calf cross a park road in Kaziranga National Park, Assam. National parks have far greater protection than elephant reserves. 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