Janak Giri
Local Community Development for Shrinking Habitat Destruction and Human Elephant Conflict in Sunsari, Nepal
An elephant carer washing to elephant and President of PRDC observing.
An elephant in Koshi Tappu W.L.R.JPG.
| Town/Region | Country | Categories | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve Sunsari | Nepal | Asia, Conflict, Habitat, Mammals | 25 Jun 2009 |
Sunsari district lies on the flood plain of the Sapta Koshi River of eastern Nepal. This is a part of Terai region has wide range of forest named “Char kose Jhadhi (Four miles dense)”. It is the largest dense of Nepal. This dense is important habitat of wildlife and other endanger animals. Especially there is huge number of Elephants living together. So the region uses to be called “Elephant camps or a place of keeping elephant”. People are in competition for living space with elephants in Sunsari around the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve.
The elephant's habitat has been destructed for the people space. Likewise, the habitat is being exploiting for fruits, fodder, fuel, etc, and the forests cleared for cultivation, plantations, settlements, etc. On the other hand, the greatest river ‘ Sapta Koshi ‘ washes away the elephant habitat by the danger flood each year. Similarly, developmental activities such as hydroelectric projects, roads, college –hospital construction and furniture collection for infrastructure development also influence the elephants’ habitat. The insistent encroachment of the elephant's habitat by man and the continued usage of the traditional migratory corridors by the elephants, eventually bring about the unnecessary encounter between both the species.
This has occurred to several elephant-human conflicts in this region of Sunsari and this conflict refers to negative interactions such as crop raiding by elephants, human deaths caused by elephants raid and killing of elephants for reasons other than ivory extraction. Crop raiding is a major problem in cultivations against elephant habitats. Farmers are loosing thousands of dollars each year from the single night raiding here. To mitigate the problems of elephant habitat destruction and Human-elephant conflict (HEC) in the proposed region, our team will conduct the several local livelihood and alternative skill development activities. Likewise Capacity Development and Habitat Restoration, awareness and alternative livelihood program, animal husbandry, chilli production, Sustainable Elephant Habitat Management and Conflict Mitigation and dissemination activities will be held.
For more information contact prdcnepal@gmail.com