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Human and elephant interactions are one of the serious issues affecting the rights of both human and elephants. Because of the reckless destruction of forest areas in the name of development, expansion of human population and subsequent shrinking of elephant’s habitats, functional corridors lead to the growing conflict between man and elephant and the result is significant loss of lives of both human and elephants. According to the Official figures nearly 812 people were killed by wild elephants in Assam in last 10 years.1 But in this process elephants too have borne the brunt and they too have lost their lives. In this perspective our study is an attempt to understand the narratives of people who have been suffering due to the increasing human elephant interactions. How the people perceive these interactions? Who are encroaching whose territories? How can the problem be solved? What is the response of the government? These questions will be dealt in the study. Our study area is confined to Numaligarh of Golaghat district in Assam.
Our field site Morongi circle of Golaghat district of Assam is a place of historical importance. Morongi’s geography is important as it has been surrounded by Nambor, Doygrung, Bijuli and Deopahar reserve forest which is home to a good number of elephants. This region has been witnessing increasing wild elephant’s raids after establishment of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) which not only blocked the elephant corridors but also captured a huge area which happened to be the inhabitant area of wild elephant of the region.
Photo : Robin Hazarika
Due to this encroachment, elephant lost their habitats and had to move in different places of nearby forest areas. But as the forest areas have been gradually narrowing down due to illegal grabbing, setting up of small tea plantation, the elephants have no other way than coming to the human inhabitant area leading to the man elephant interaction and causing huge loss of crops, killing lives of the people and accidental deaths of elephants.
We have witnessed a tragic death of a female elephant after coming in contact with a power line in the rice field of Dholagaon village of Morangi Circle. The accidental and unfortunate death of an elephant raise several questions regarding the loss of elephant habitats because of unplanned development, loss of forest land accompanied with scarcity of food and shelter. Golaghat occupies a significant place for both small and large tea plantations in Assam. ‘Massive loss of forest land and rise of tea plantation in that forest land is certainly a cause of concern and these expansion of tea plantations in forest land is mostly done illegally, these manmade destruction compelled elephants to encroach human’s periphery’, says Bijit Saikia a villager of Dholagaon. Moreover because of the construction of boundary wall by NRL near to Deopahar Reserve forest which is the traditional elephant corridor is another significant reason for the human elephant interaction in nearby villages. The district administration demolished a small section of the wall following a directive by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on a petition filed by Rohit Choudhury, an environmental activist in 2015. In 2019, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by the NRL and ordered demolition of the entire wall upholding the NGT directive.
Sapun Hazarika a woman from Dholagaon village has narrated her story how every year more than three bighas of rice field is destroyed by the elephants and it cost heavy loss of money and labour put in cultivating rice crops. But still every year she has been cultivating rice crop with the hope of getting some income from the it, as it is the only source to sustain her family.
‘Watching more than 80 to 90 wild elephants is a common site in Dholagaon village, we have seen destructing our rice field and houses by the wild elephants but still we can’t blame the elephants. What these poor elephants will eat if they would not come to rice fields?’ says Dipak Saikia a villager who has completely lost his rice crops because of the wild elephants raids. ‘Today we have seen the death of an elephant in our rice fields, and we worship elephants and call it as Baba, so we can’t eat food today, it’s like we are sharing our land with elephants’ says another villager Daben Saikia.
Bijit Saikia alleged that the forest department has completely failed to mitigate the serious issue of human elephant conflict. Moreover, government was unfair in terms of granting compensation to the victimized family who lost their homes and property because of the elephant’s raids, as alleged by Deben Hazarika, a local villager.
When we asked about their views on dealing with the human elephant conflict, they significantly mentioned about the need of safeguarding elephant corridors which are now being blocked because of the proliferation of the small tea plantation and destruction of forest reserves. Moreover villagers have showed their anger regarding the reluctance of the forest department to safeguard the rights of people and wild elephants.
From the conversation with the local villagers, we have come to realise that villagers have developed a sense of sharing their space with elephants irrespective of the challenges they face. They have developed friendliness towards elephants. Contrary to wide perception of locating elephants as problem animals, they acknowledge the huge encroachment of humans in wild elephant’s habitats. Narratives from the locals provoked us to reinterpret the dominant discourse of human elephant conflict in a different way. Instead of developing anger and hostility towards the wild elephants for their loss of crops and space, they have shown their discontentedness towards the negligence and failure of the government’s role in mitigating the increasing loss of forest reserves and safeguarding the elephant’s habitats. This is how it is deconstructing the conventional perception of conflict to conviviality.
[1] Human= elephant conflict claimed 812 lives in Assam in 10 years by PTI, https://www.eastmojo.com.news
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