Vital corridor for Asian elephants to be severed by government development in India

Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com 5 Apr 09

The largest wild population of Asian elephants in the world is threatened by development over a 2.5 kilometer wide corridor, according to Rainforest Informatin Centre which is apart of an international campaign to change the location of the development. The corridor, located in the Western Ghats of India, is the last unbroken forest leading the elephants from wet season to dry season feeding grounds. Unfortunately the corridor also connects two different Indian states: Kerala and Karnataka.

Already, a busy interstate highway passes through the elephants' forest, used by hundred of vehicles around the clock. Currently checkpoints leading from one state to another are located in three different places, leaving the forest corridor free for elephants to pass. However, a recent decision has been made to combine the checkpoints of the three states in the center of the elephant corridor.

“This development would include all manner of infrastructure - building complexes, housing, offices, toilets and dormitories for drivers, a fuel filling station and so on,” writes the nonprofit conservation group, Rainforest Information Centre. “The checkpoint clearance takes hours, so there would be hundreds of lorries parked along the road throughout the night on either side of the checkpoints within the forests preventing elephants from using the corridor.”

Rainforest Information Center notes that work has already begun: a trench has been dug which prevents elephants “from crossing the road, cutting [the elephants] off from the the river and whatever little fodder available on the river margin”. Working with the Indian environmental organization, Wayanard Nature Protection Group, and Forests.org, an online activist center, Rainforests Information Centre has encouraged supporters to contact government officials.

“The best solution would be the relocation of the checking stations to outside the forest on the Kerala side of the corridor where suitable land for this is available,” suggests Rainforests Information Centre. “It is also necessary to prohibit vehicle movement during certain night-time hours for example, between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.”

John Seed of Rainforests Information Centre told Monagabay.com: "we feel confident that international attention can persuade the Kerala government to move the site of its planned development out of the corridor and out of the jungle."

For more information on the corridor: Rainforests Information Centre or Forests.org.