Animals to be captured in the traditional way

14 August 2012

biswabrata goswami
MIDNAPORE, 14 AUG: After almost two decades, the Mela Sikar ~ a traditional method of capturing wild animals ~ will be organised by the state forest department in Junglemahal districts next month, when elephants from Dalma will head to South Bengal.
The Central government has already given permission to the state government to capture four sub-adult elephants from the herd for captive use.
"The permission for the Mela Sikar was sought with the belief that if four elephants were caught, the rest of the herd might not visit South Bengal again. The state has also sought permission from the Centre to build two elephant-rescue centres ~ one in the south (Midnapore) and the other in the north (Jalpaiguri) ~ to capture and confine eight rogue tuskers," said a senior forest official.  Since the late 1980s, elephants from Bihar (now Jharkhand) have been entering Bengal during the monsoon. The number of elephants and the duration of their stay in South Bengal has gone up over the years, worsening man-animal conflict in the densely populated districts of Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia.
On an average, five people and one elephant die and hundreds of hectares of crops are destroyed each year. The desperate state hit upon the idea of capturing the menacing jumbos in 2000. After 12 years, the Centre has now granted permission, the forest official said. In 1977, elephants were brought under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, and capturing them was made illegal, according to Rupnarayan divisional forest officer Rabindranath Saha. But the Centre, under Section 12 of the same Act, can give permission for their capture for population control and scientific research. In West Bengal, the last time this was done was in 1994-95, when six elephants were captured.  "The state government’s plan ~ capturing and confining dominant bulls in rescue centres ~ may aggravate conflict," said Mr Rana Purohit, an animal conservator.
He said elephant society is matriarchal, and females jointly share the responsibility of raising calves. At a certain age, the young bulls leave and join the big males and the females stay back with their mothers. The young bulls, when they are big enough and adequately groomed by the dominant males, return to the females in the herds and mate.
"Outside forests, dominant male elephants lead the raids on croplands. The typical human response is to identify and capture these bulls as 'rogue tuskers'. The true rogue elephants (habitual killers) need to be removed, but such cases are rare. So under public pressure, the forest department goes on capturing random bulls. This practice aggravates the man-animal conflict," said Mr Purohit.  According to conservators, the removal of the dominant sub-adults is a short-term solution since sub-populations soon find replacements. More significantly, the absence of dominant sub-adults from a certain group leaves young elephants directionless and aggressive. Since these young elephants replace their missing big brothers in the frontline, their inexperience and aggression when in charge of raids usually aggravate conflict.