I choose this topic as a responsibility rather than being just poetic with words to produce a writting .
As we endure into a haughty world we are forgetting some basics. The one is we are not alone, there are others who are equally important species like tigers , wild boars, reptiles,monkeys and also elephants.
If you want to see a marvellous creation of god, maybe see elephants. They are vegetarian, their trunks are made up of lakh of muscle, they can smell food or anything of interest from kilometre or more away. Some mismatch or rather shortfall , not exactly, still conspicuous to my mind ,is their ability to see , hardly 25 odd metres. Genetically Gandhian by nature, they are aggressive to defend themselves , else very adaptable and intelligent.
But there is human elephants conflict is primarily because of space. We as humans are encroaching their habitat, certainly we are behind this conflict , we can say it is staged conflict.
This pachyderms are found in north east India , West Bengal ,Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu .
I share my experience , though I am no expert but I observed these hulks in close proximity of humans in semi urban environments in northern eastern India.
To put it in words it is an an open military station near Guhati, Assam , with elephants moving about as normally as is cattle.
The best case scenario is to avoid human elephants conflict is these two species remain separate, but that is not possible everywhere.
So arises human elephants conflict where humans are occasionally mauled or elephants are hurt or killed.
My endeavour is to give a particular perspective and a solution for coveted separation , and it can be applied wherever it can be possibly.
As I observed , the animal up close in this semi urban area , and found that, it is naturally compelling for the animal to be drawn towards places of food stores, eatables or even waste products . I prudently got the idea to keep them at bay.
I saw that incase there was a scattered rubble or objects which were almost 12 inches high, the elephants did not attempt to cross over these , as it is they are afraid of uneven surfaces.
While a drain like structure also stops elephants to cross over but It is still crossable as drain less than 5/6 feet is compromised easily by elephants. It is difficult to maintain a drain for just, warding off elephants.
So, perspicacious to my observation , I think that structures of 2 feet high placed randomly around the intended area and with a total space covered by these structures spanning upto 6 odd feet with numbers of structures , having a distance among them of .75-1feet can dissuade this bulky boy from ramming into intended area.
These structures can be of wooden logs to start with , and see their efficacy
A height of 2 odd feet is chosen as beyond this height the elephant can damage structures as it is able to use his head and trunk effectively to deliver might he possess.
Also for these structures to be firm to ground, these wooden logs are dug 2 odd feet into ground or as the case may be.
These structures must be of 8/10 inches in circumference and circular , may not be rigidly circular , but idea is to avoid injury to animal, incase elephants try to negotiate this protrusion by stepping over any of these structures , which would puncture its hoof as he loads the protruding structure with its weight . The circumference of 8/10 inches is inescapable for humans safety also , incase they flip over.
The outer most or elephant side of structures, can be 1 feet, as elephants have a habit to football with objects and this can destabilise or remove the structure . A smaller size shall ensure firmness if played over.
To give a realistic image of this obstacle , you imagine a maze of these protruded structures of 2 odd feet high and with .75-1 feet inter se distance among these structures , which are placed randomly towards approach of elephants direction adjunct to intended area. The maze is almost 6 feet wide , with protruding structures and is aligned in shape of intended area.
The 6 feet layout also serves to discourage elephants invasion of intended area by extending their trunk , while standing on one side of obstacle as the sentient thought is , that this mammal has front and hind legs 5 odd feet apart and keeping span of these structures about 6 feet apart allows us to take advantage of his limited vision, because of which it will not step inside this uneven obstacle.
Though this obstacle comes with a caveat. It’s as of now for dwarf areas , but it can save a lot of traction between humans and elephants.
A variation of this obstacle can be found as we experience efficacy of this obstacle.Height of protrusion, number of protrusions by altering inter se distance among them and use of conical structures with blunt top instead of circular structure are some of parameters where variation can be applied.
Elephants are not likely to negotiate such obstacle with their ability to compromise uneven conditions, as also a .75-1 feet of space among protruding structures is enough for humans to cross over, incase required.
Lastly I tried to not to add open source facts as the most important aspect needs attention of your eye, also due to word limit real factual matter is suppressed while stating the known facts.
(This is Gorky Singh’s personal experience as a wildlife enthusiast.)
