Elephant Corridors in India

Why in news?

The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change recently directed Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to prepare a proposal to notify the Dulung-Subansiri elephant corridor.

How elephant corridor is designated in India?

• Wildlife Protection Act, 1972- It empowers the state governments to declare areas that link protected regions as “conservation reserves” under Section 36A.
• Community reserves- It can also be designated as “community reserves” according to Section 36C of the wildlife protection act, 1972.
• Role of ministry- The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change collaborates with state forest departments to identity and validate elephant corridors.
• State level designation- State governments play a crucial role in demarcating and designating these corridors as “ State Elephant Corridors”.
• Legal protection- These designations subject the corridors to legal protection under relevant laws, such as the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and the Environment Protection Act, 1986.
• National Elephant Corridor Project- It aims to ensure and manage these vital pathways for elephant movement, this project identifies and conserves corridors to ensure the long term survival of Asian elephants within India’s political boundaries.

Why India needs elephant corridor?

Elephant corridor is that it is a strip of land that facilitates the movement of elephants between two or more viable habitat patches.

• Legal protection- The corridors will legally protected, potentially designating it as a wildlife sanctuary or conservation reserve.
• Reduce habit isolation-It allow elephants to continue their nomadic mode of survival, despite shrinking forest cover, by facilitating travel between distinct forest habitats.
• Keystone species- Supreme Court in elephant corridor case said that its State’s duty to protect a “keystone species” like elephants, which are immensely important to the environment.

Supreme Court upheld the Tamil Nadu government’s authority to notify an ‘elephant corridor’ and protect the migratory path of the animals through the Nilgiri biosphere reserve.

• Forest conservation- Animal paths are blocked as forests have been turned into farms and unchecked tourism, these elephant corridors would check the negative impacts on wildlife habitats and migration routes.
• Man-animal conflict- Animals are forced to seek alternative routes resulting in increased elephant-human conflict, these particularly affect animals that have large homes like elephants, a dedicated elephant corridor would reduce the fatalities.

Kerala is the first state to declares man-animal conflict as a state-specific disaster.

• Forest regeneration- They would help regenerate forests on which other species, including tigers depend.
• Preserve migratory corridors- The negative impacts of forest fragmentation on ecosystems highlight the necessity of preserving and restoring migratory corridors to mitigate these effects.
• Hydropeaking risks- Worldwide Institute of India report highlighted the dangers of hydropeaking in lower Subansiri hydroelectric project which could lead to flash floods and pose threat to elephants, particularly calves.

Quick facts

References

1. Indian Express- Ready proposal of Elephant corridor
2. MoEFCC- Elephant corridor of India