Afforestation For Elephants In Maharashtra Only Way To Beat Climate Change Effects

Deforestation, cropping changes, drought and fluctuating weather patterns have pushed elephants out of the forests, into villages, and in direct conflict with humans. A large-scale afforestation project—aimed at reenergizing drying waterbodies and shrinking elephant habitats within the forests of Kolhapur district in Maharashtra—is underway to fight climate change. This is the first time such a project to revitalise elephant habitats is being undertaken in the country. The forests of Kolhapur have, in the past, seen the migration of elephants from the neighbouring state of Karnataka that have been entering the villages abounding the forests and destroying crops.

Afforestation efforts in the deep jungles of Ajra and Chandwad in Kolhapur district started early this June and will be carried out in all the forests of the district.

Anand Shinde, elephant conservationist and founder of Trunk Call—The Wildlife Foundation is spearheading the project. “Traditionally, elephants follow familiar routes and visit the same areas when the fruits are ripe. Now, because fruits and water are not easily available, they are straying from their regular habitats into new lands. Their geographical distribution is also changing as they are roaming around across different stretches in search of food and water,” says Shinde, who is also an ‘elephant whisperer’—someone with the ability to communicate with, and understand the needs of these gentle giants.

Fruit trees including jackfruits, sweet corn, peepal, banyan, bedlemaad (a local plant native to Kolhapur and the Konkan region) and bamboo etc., are being planted in the deep forests. “We have one focus, to ensure that the elephant habitats are re-energised with vegetation suitable for them,” says Shinde. “The watering holes within the forests are drying up and afforestation will ensure that rainwater is trapped in the soil and the level of groundwater improves.”

Kolhapur, a part of the Western Ghats, is also seeing denudation of its forests due to the steady increase in temperatures over the past decade. In 2021, scientists N H Ravindranath and G Bala, who are part of the group of scientists and experts working with the intergovernmental panel on climate change, issued a grim warning on the status of the ghats. According to them, about 33 per cent of their biodiversity will be lost by 2050 due to extreme weather. This is irreversible. As part of this change, the forests will change from evergreen to deciduous and dry deciduous, says the study. The results of a study published in the journal Theoretical and Applied Climatology indicate that the Western Ghats have become warmer by 0.8 degrees in the past 100 years due to climate change.

According to Shinde, the afforestation project is being undertaken in the areas that are close to the villages the elephants have been entering. “Human-elephant conflict has been increasing and we have to provide food, water and a safe corridor for them to move around,” says Shinde. There has also been a perceptible change in the people’s outlook towards the elephants that stray into their lands. “They would earlier burst crackers to drive the elephants away. Now they tell us that ‘Dev’ (God) has come into our fields.” Shinde has been using examples from the Mahabharat to educate people that elephants have occupied the forests in Kolhapur and the Konkan region in the past. The people, too, have been helping in the afforestation project as they are keen on saving the shrinking habitat of the creatures themselves.

Studies by various conservationists indicate that elephants and climate change are closely connected. When elephants move about in search of water and food, they eat or crush smaller plants. The taller and stronger plants survive. This way, they play a critical role in clearing paths in the forests and seed dispersal through their dung.

One of the most direct ways that climate change is affecting elephants is through rising temperatures. Though they live in hot environments, elephants are sensitive to heat. They do not sweat and depend, instead, on flapping their ears, moving to the shade and spraying their bodies with mud and water to cool down. Heat strokes are considered to be a leading cause of death of Asian elephants, say experts.

Increasing temperatures are also responsible for shrinking elephant habitats. By 2050, Asian elephants are expected to lose 45.71 per cent of their suitable habitat due to elevated temperatures. Since elephants travel long distances to find shade, water and places to rest to cool down, the loss of suitable habitat prevents them from finding resources to thermoregulate their bodies and avoid a heat stroke, indicates a study on climate change affecting elephants across the globe.

If elephants do not drink water every two or three days, they can succumb to dehydration. As temperatures continue to soar and watering holes within the forests shrink further elephants will require more water to survive. Higher temperatures will also kill the water-rich plants eaten by elephants. Fruits and seeds are the most calorie-rich food in an elephant’s diet. However, the forests do not have enough fruit trees to sustain them.

Elephants are endemic to the continents of Asia and Africa. While alarm bells are being sounded on the phenomenon of African elephants hurtling towards extinction due to poaching, severe drought, soaring temperatures, scarcity of food, water and shrinking habitats, Asian elephants too are headed along the same path, indicate studies. 

“Conservationists across the world are working together to save the habitats of elephants. The earlier predicted year for the extinction of elephants was 2025, now due to conservation efforts, it has been pushed to 2040,” says Shinde. This afforestation effort will be undertaken in all the forest areas in Kolhapur. While the emphasis is on trees that will help recharge groundwater during the monsoon and thereby the waterbodies within the forests, plantation of fruit trees will provide varied fodder for the elephants, says Shinde.