Intelligent techniques for averting human elephant conflict along the forest border areas

Abstract

India is home to 60 of the Asian elephant population According to Project Elephant a government initiative for elephant conservation there were 28 000 elephants in the country in 2011 Man animal conflict has been on the rise in the forest border areas with herds of wild s straying into human habitation Till recently powerful searchlights crackers and drums to push the wild elephant herds back into the jungle were used The Kumki Rescue elephants were used more in hill areas to chase the herds of wild elephants into the forests Surveillance and tracking of these herds are difficult due to their size and nature of movement The loss due to destruction in the farms are more The elephants are also subject to attack by humans resulting in danger to the life of elephants It is generally the borders of forests that are the focal points of conflict Minimizing human elephant conflict to reduce the risk of life of both human beings and elephants is of utmost importance Taking these problems in to consideration an early warning system to minimize the human elephant conflict in the forest border areas is proposed in this research work newline