Sir,

Thanks for working on nabbing the culprit to punish, who kept cracker inside fruits which resulted a tragic death of a Pregnant Elephant few days back near Malappuram, Kerala. Its a wildlife crime and the culprit has to be punished.

As long as there is no permanent solution for the Human Elephant conflict, such wildlife crimes continue to happen. Apart from patrolling the forest, vigilance and punishing crimes, we should also look for a permanent effective solution which can reduce conflicts to great extend.

As per a wild elephant research article - "The Surprising Clue to Reducing Human-Elephant Conflict: Minerals" - Elephants and other animals with vast home ranges have found themselves forced into increasingly smaller geographical areas, often restricted by fencing or other human activities. These smaller areas are then, in turn, under huge pressures to meet the animals’ nutritional needs. This can cause animals to alter their movement patterns and search for new sources of food, potentially causing human-elephant conflict.

Article post - https://therevelator.org/elephant-nutrition/

I understand the recently dead pregnant elephant would have strayed near human habitats for her nutrition needs and tend to eat the fruits which had the explosive hidden inside. Chasing elephants from human habitats, throwing crackers, using bee hives etc are only a temporary solution. We need to think of a solution to address the elephants nutritional needs which is the reason for them coming to human farm lands.

I request the respective authorities to immediately initiate an expert study on wild elephant's nutritional needs and implement the wild elephant feeding project based on the study. The nutritious feed should be provided to the wild elephants inside the forest according to their movement pattern, so that it becomes a part of their lifestyle. We can also enrich their habitat by planting the feeds inside the forest. Deforestation, species extinction, fragmentation of habitats has largely affected the ecosystem which is drastically reducing the nutritional health of wildlife.

Also providing nutritious feed to elephants inside forest costs very less than the cost of capturing the wild elephants in conflict, training and maintaining in captivity for the rest of their life.

Addressing their needs inside the forest will reduce straying in to human habitats. Elephants are gentle in nature and social animals. If we address their needs, villagers can co-exist with animals without much conflicts. This wild elephant feeding project will also provide employment opportunity for nearby village farmers and also helps reduce such wildlife crimes.

For centuries, we have been taking wealth from the wild, its time now to give back health and wealth to the wild for our own survival.

Thanks and Regards,
Ramesh Amala Srinivasan