Notify 14 Elephant Corridors NGT Directive To Odisha Govt.

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In August 2021, the National Green Tribunal asked Odisha to notify elephant corridors within two months.
The state government and other agencies involved had earlier identified 14 corridors but never notified them
The definition of ‘corridor’ differs from species to species.
For elephants, they constitute a narrow and short stretch of forest through which the animals can move from one habitat source to another.

Proposed but not notified

In January 2010, the Odisha government had identified 14 corridors to be notified for the safe movement of elephants. These were:

Telkoi-Pallahara
Kuldiha-Hadgarh-Simlipal
Kotgarh-Chandrapur
Badampahar-Karida
Deuli-Suliapada
Karo-Karampada
Maulabhanj-Jiridimal-Anantpur
Kanheijharan-Anantpur
Buguda-Nayagarh
Nuagan-Barunei
Tala-Phulagarh
Barapahad-Tarabha-Kantamal
Karlapat-Urladani
Badampahar-Dhobadhobin

These corridors, when notified, would be 420.8 kilometres long and spread over an area of 870 sq km, connecting Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh with Odisha.

In 2010, the Odisha forest and environment department had proposed Rs 54 crore to be spent over the next five years.
No plan has been executed on the ground since then. Hence, no connectivity has been ensured to the animals for their free movement.
With no elephant corridors in place, more and more elephants are falling in wells, dying on train tracks or falling victim to retaliatory attacks after straying from corridors.
More than 840 elephants have died since 2012 due to human-elephant conflict, according to a state government report.
The state forest department reported that elephants killed 660 people, damaged 8,000 houses and destroyed 87,403 acres of standing crops between April 2010 and March 2015.

Can notification of corridors protect elephants?

According to the rules, the state government needs to send a proposal of notification of these corridors to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), who could then notify it under the Environment (Protection) Act,1986.
The state has a strong mining lobby which has put pressure on the forest department to prevent from taking the decision of notification of elephant corridors.
The Centre had written to all states to take steps for elephant corridors and the concept of these corridors could be dated back to the 1990s but till now no concrete steps have been taken

Features

According to experts, elephants use these corridors seasonally to move from one habitat to another for their needs but obstructions like mining and other activities have led to the destruction of these habitats.
Shashi Paul, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) of Odisha, told Mongabay-India that if elephant corridors were notified activities like mining in such sensitive zones will be strictly not allowed. “There are different types of activities that are allowed in different zones of elephant corridor areas which are at par with ecologically sensitive areas.
. Activities such as mining are strictly not allowed in such zones while some activities (such as transmission lines) could be regulated, where permissions are required from the government. Only environment-friendly works are allowed in such zones,” he informed.
He explained that there are different sets of studies done on elephant corridors in Odisha and there has been no unanimity in such studies and their selection of the corridor areas.
Also, the Odisha government had roped in the Bangalore-based Asian Nature Conservation Foundation (ANCF) to assess the habitat viability of the elephant corridors and also on the load-bearing capacity of different Elephant Reserves of the state.
The ANCF, which had submitted its report to the government in 2017, had recommended expansion of areas of the Mahanadi and Sambalpur Elephant Reserves and also talked about the feasibility of the 14 elephant corridors identified by the government.
It had observed that the Hadargh-Kuldiha-Similipal Corridor is ecologically good if mining activity is stopped.

The report, as submitted to the NGT, claimed that out of the 14 corridors nine such corridors were of very poor or poor quality.
These included the Hadagarh-Kuldiha-Similipal Corridor, Buguda-Central RF Corridor, Tal-Kolgarh Corridor and Nuagaon-Baruni Corridor.
It said that only four corridors are ecologically feasible – a point which was countered by Biswajit Mohanty before the NGT.
The fight for elephant corridors has been a long journey.
In 1992, Project Elephant, a central government programme, was started to work for the welfare of the animal. In 2010, a special Task Force on elephants released a report
Gajah which talked about steps, such as notifying elephant corridors, the government was required to take to ensure the welfare of the animal.
However, so far, only a few regions in the country have attempted it so far.

Elephant corridors could halt mining activities

If the elephant corridors are notified, they could stop mining activities in some regions, which is an important crucial component of the state’s economy.
Thus for Odisha to move towards notifying these elephant corridors is not an easy task.
According to Odisha’s Economic Survey 2020-21, mining plays an important role in the growth of the industrial sector in Odisha.
The state accounts for India’s 96 percent chromite, 92 percent nickel, 51 percent bauxite, 43 percent of manganese ore, 33 percent of iron ore and 24 percent of coal reserves (as of April 1, 2019).
People living in the mining-prone areas claim that elephant-human interaction and the subsequent damage due to that is rising due to decreased space for the movement of the herds.
There are 88 identified elephant corridors in India.

Out of the total of 88 corridors,

20 are in south India,
12 in north-western India,
20 in central India,
14 in northern West Bengal, and
22 in north-eastern India.

Threats to Elephant Corridors

Habitat loss leading to fragmentation and destruction caused by developmental activities like construction of buildings, roads, railways, holiday resorts, and fixing solar energized electric fencing, etc.
Coal mining and iron ore mining is the two “single biggest threats” to elephant corridors in central India.

Orissa, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh are mineral-rich states, but also have the highest number of elephant corridors in the country, which makes them known for elephant-man conflicts.
There is also a serious poaching problem, as elephant ivory from the tusks is extremely valuable.
Elephants need extensive grazing grounds and most reserves cannot accommodate them.
If protected areas are not large enough, elephants may search for food elsewhere. This often results in conflicts with humans, due to elephants raiding or destroying crops

Mitigation

The fusion of the corridors with nearby protected areas wherever feasible; in other cases, declaration as Ecologically Sensitive Areas or conservation reserves to grant protection.
During the process of securing a corridor, monitoring for animal movement has to be carried out; depending on the need, habitat restoration work shall also be done.

Steps Taken For Conservation

Plans and programmes to arrest their poachers and killers.
Declaration and establishment of various elephant reservesacross the states. For example, Mysuru and Dandeli elephant reserves in Karnataka.
The Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants(MIKE) programme, launched in 2003, is an international collaboration that tracks trends in information related to the illegal killing of elephants from across Africa and Asia, to monitor effectiveness of field conservation efforts.
Project Elephant:It is a centrally sponsored scheme and was launched in February 1992 for the protection of elephants their habitats and corridors.
TheMinistry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change provides the financial and technical support to major elephant range states in the country through the project