Experts urge a rethink in conservation plans for large mammals

There is a need for a "rethink" in conservation strategies for threatened large mammal species like elephants, wildlife scientists have said.
In an article published in the international journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Varun R Goswami and Divya Vasudev have said elephant connectivity cannot be ignored while mitigating conflict and landscape connectivity is critical for their conservation.
"Asian elephant conservation provides the perfect example. Elephant survival in heterogeneous landscapes rests on their ability to move among habitats in search of food and space.
"But this movement often brings elephants into contact and potential conflict with people, especially in densely populated countries like India," said Goswami who heads the elephant program for WCS India.

The conservation biologists stressed that landscape connectivity is critical for elephant conservation and sites important for elephant connectivity often face human-elephant conflict.
They said barrier-centric conflict mitigation that come with substantial monetary costs can also adversely affect elephant conservation even as they stressed that minimising conflict without impinging on elephant connectivity is the "need of the hour".

Noting that a typical response to conflict is to prevent elephants from coming out of forests through fences and trenches, Vasudev said this strategy, however, has a direct negative impact on connectivity and as a result on elephant persistence.
"Animals do not always move through corridors that people demarcate, rather they use routes they view as least threatening," Vasudev said.

The debate becomes pertinent in light of the railway
fences coming up around some of India's most important forests. The cost of these fences reportedly runs to more than Rs 1 crore per kilometre.
"These fences come at huge monetary and manpower costs, and before putting them up, we need to think hard about where we place them. It is critical that we minimise human-elephant conflict, but while simultaneously thinking about elephant movement needs between habitats," said Goswami.
The article titled 'Triage of conservation needs: The juxtaposition of conflict mitigation and connectivity considerations in heterogeneous, human-dominated landscapes'.
Vasudev said endangered species, including elephants, tigers and gibbons, are present in fragmented landscapes and conserving them in these landscapes means that there is a need to have science-based policy, long-term vision, and incorporate diverse challenges and opportunities.