Volume : III, Issue : VII, July - 2014

A Status Study on Human–Elephant Conflict in and Around Savandurga State Forest

Ravindranath N, Dr M N Sridhar Babu, Nishanth S K

Abstract :

The problem of crop raiding by elephants is new to this part of Bangalore rural district. Elephants used to visit this area occasionally and the number would be no more than 3–4. But since then the elephant problems have escalated at a rapid pace. The land cover mapping revealed that urbanization is not a major threat in the area. 73.143% of the total area of the range is covered by agricultural land. Encroachment on all around the forest patches was evident during the field studies. 18.7% is forest and 2.7% is water body in this range. 1.5% area is hillocks. Quarrying activities in these hillocks cause disturbance to elephants. Even though the forest patches degraded by the forest fire, cattle grazing, illegal felling of trees for firewood and trade, majority of the people denied venturing into the forest. Major occupation in this area is agriculture and animal husbandry. Studies revealed that the crop raiding intensity is more in the vicinity of the forest boundary. 93% of the affected villages were within 3 kilometers from the forest boundary. T–test values revealed that there is no difference in damage done to small and medium landholding farmers. The mean elephant density of the range is 0.07 which is less than that in Bannerghatta National Park. BNP is the nearest elephant habitat to the study area.

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Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijar  

Cite This Article:

Ravindranath N, Dr M N Sridhar Babu, Nishanth S K A Status Study on Human-Elephant Conflict in and Around Savandurga State Forest Indian Journal of Applied Research, Vol.4, Issue.7 July 2014

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