Inside the Community Effort Helping Elephants Travel Safely Between Forests

India’s elephant population currently stands at 22,446. In 2017, the population was 27,312.

Poaching, illegal trade, human-elephant conflict, and habitat loss have led to a decline in the numbers of the ‘endangered’ Asian elephant (Elephas maximus).

This is where the Wildlife Trust of India’s Right of Passage initiative, directed towards the protection of elephants, comes in.

The project, instituted in 2005, has helped identify 88 elephant corridors (strips of land that elephants use to move from one habitat to another) across India.

Once the corridors are identified, they are mapped and protected.

Instead of relying simply on satellite imagery or GI space modelling, the Wildlife Trust of India’s studies are completely based on teams venturing into these fragile intersections.

“We note down everything: the barriers an elephant may be facing, the possibilities of conflict situations, and upcoming threats,” Upasana Ganguly, who heads the ‘Right of Passage’ project at Wildlife Trust of India, explains.

The next step is its protection. The Right of Passage project, in collaboration with the Government of India’s Project Elephant (a conservation initiative launched in 1992) and state forest departments, is strengthening coexistence.

Upasana explains that the initiative is premised on the concept of Green Corridor Champions. These are locals closely involved in protecting elephant corridors with the support of local governments.

By rehabilitating local people, and then handing over the land to the relevant state forest department for legal protection, along with ensuring benefit-sharing with communities, and acquisition of key corridors, the elephants are being protected.

In addition to this, community awareness events are conducted in schools. The model has yielded successful results, with the Wildlife Trust of India’s mapped corridors now standing at 101.

The aim is to give the gentle giants safe access to their migratory routes while also ensuring that this protection does not come at a cost to communities.