Anil Penna Yahoo News 20 Dec 07;
An "elephant corridor" linking two forest reserves is being opened in southern India, giving the endangered animals unrestricted movement to feed and breed in the region, officials say.
More than 1,000 elephants are set to gain right of passage through the corridor linking the Edayargalli and Doddasampige reserves when land deeds are handed over to the Karnataka state forest department on Thursday.
India is home to an estimated 25,000 wild elephants, the most in Asia, but their numbers have been vastly depleted by poaching and habitat loss.
Encroachment on elephant turf by humans has also forced the animals to stray from their habitats and attack settlements in search of food.
"Securing these corridors is the only long-term solution for reducing the human-elephant conflict," said Vivek Menon, executive director of the Wildlife Trust of India.
The 25.5 acres (10 hectares) of land was bought by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in 2005 for an unspecified sum to ensure the area is protected from human settlement.
The wildlife trust and the IFAW, which are partner organisations, currently hold the deeds.
Menon estimates that clashes between humans and elephants kill roughly 200 people and an equal number of the animals every year, aside from the crop damage caused by rampaging herds.
"Elephants are big nomads -- if you don't give them room to move from one habitat to another, the situation will only get worse," said Menon, an elephant biologist.
The handover of the deeds will mark the start of a two-day meeting of chief wildlife wardens from 10 states, animal rights activists and conservationists in Bangalore to discuss elephant protection measures.
The scale of the problem is highlighted by satellite imagery showing that between 1996 and 2000 villagers encroached on 691,000 acres of thick forest in the northeastern state of Assam, home to 5,000 elephants -- the most in India.
Thursday's land handover ceremony in Bangalore, the Karnataka state capital, marks the first time land has been bought by a private organisation and delivered to the government to protect elephant habitats.
In return for the land, forest rangers will maintain the corridor as a safe passage for elephants.
The corridor, which is two kilometres (1.25 miles) long and 0.5 km wide, links two forest areas cut off from each other by deforestation and agricultural land, the statement said.
A highway runs through the corridor connecting the human settlements but it has little traffic and officials say plans will be made to regulate the road to avoid hampering elephants' ability to move safely between the protected areas.
"Elephants are intelligent animals; they will go to the edge of the forest and wait for the traffic to pass before crossing over," said Menon.
The Wildlife Trust of India, the IFAW and other partners have also acquired part of a strip of land linking the Wayanad and Brahmagiri sanctuaries in Kerala that is threatened by human habitation.
