In southern India, communities are having frightening run-ins with wildlife. Across villages near Bannerghatta National Park, elephants are moving in ways they never have before — traveling far from their usual habitats into areas where locals aren’t used to seeing them. Now, many farmers are facing frequent crop raids, property damage, and even deadly encounters.
What’s happening?
A story from The World reported that elephants from Karnataka’s Bannerghatta region have begun migrating east into Andhra Pradesh, a coastal state that hadn’t seen wild elephants in nearly 200 years. Conservationists said that the animals are following fragmented forest routes in search of food and water after being forced out of their usual areas by deforestation and rising global temperatures.
To guide them, the government built a 17-mile elephant corridor linking Bannerghatta to the Kaundinya Wildlife Sanctuary. But experts warn the path is not ideal, cutting across major highways and train lines where elephants have already been hit.
“The concept of a corridor is that it should connect somewhere to somewhere,” said Avinash Krishnan from the conservation group A Rocha India. “This is somewhere to nowhere.”
In the Chittoor district, where many of the elephants now settle, they face more hardships. At least 28 elephants have died since 2011, mostly from electrocution. “Being an elephant here is not easy,” Krishnan said.
Why are human-elephant encounters concerning?
Experts say the elephants’ shifting range is linked to pressures created by human activity. Erratic rainfall has farmers drilling wells and switching from traditional crops to more lucrative and water-intensive ones like rice — exactly the kind of nutrient-rich food elephants crave. Plus, expanding developments are making encounters more common. What started as a seasonal migration is now a year-round cycle of human-wildlife conflict.
Several local farmers told The World they are losing sleep over it, scared to encounter the massive creatures on their farms. Residents have lost crops and, at times, their lives. “Recently, one elephant killed two people nearby,” one farmer said.
What’s being done about it?
Forest officials use firecrackers and patrols to redirect elephants back into forest zones, but conservationists said that’s only a temporary fix. The best thing we can do to protect both people and elephants is to restore natural habitats and design corridors that are safe and effective.
Nonprofits like A Rocha India are studying migration routes to learn more about the elephant’s shifting behaviors. But it’s already clear that the changing climate is creating ripple effects for farmers and wildlife.
“If crops are the foremost diet of elephants, then climate change has a direct bearing on it,” said Krishnan. Long-term solutions will require addressing the deeper causes of why the elephants are moving differently: deforestation, development, and the weather shifts that come with a warming world.
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