Don’t make a killing

Don’t make a killing
A documentary film about the elephant-man conflict in Karnataka posits that solutions to loss of life due to elephant attacks can only come through co-existence. Not everybody agrees, though. We look for some answers

There is a moment in Elephants in the Coffee when Naveen Cariappa (his family has farmed an area in Coorg for more than three generations) talks about how media, officials and conservationists rush to the site of an elephant death, but remain silent when a coffee plantation worker is killed as a result of conflict with the very same elephants. The lament encapsulates the kernel of the 58-minute documentary – that the solution to such man-elephant conflict lies not in taking sides, but in pursuing solutions that encourage a peaceful co-existence between both parties.

Created by author, documentary filmmaker and cultural explorer Bhaskar Krishnamurthy and journalist-turned-educator Tom Grant, Elephants in the Coffee looks at the fragile relationship between elephants and humans, and has been shot mainly around Nagarahole National Park and the coffee estates skirting it.

Krishnamurthy, who was in the city for the screening (he is based in the US) says this, his first film on the subject, was born out of a desire to understand what happens as human population grows and elephant habitat shrinks. “Are we at the threshold of cutting our relationship with animals? The more plantation workers die as a result of this conflict, the more tolerance for wildlife is going to reduce. And that doesn’t bode well,” he says. Grant adds: “Cariappa represented an important duality, or internal conflict, among farmers. He loved elephants and nature. He worked with people in the national park to help improve the situation for elephants. But when they began destroying his crops and threatening his workers, he had to seek solutions. He found no reasonable measures by which he, as a small farmer, could protect his farm from crop raiding elephants. In our minds, he is a symbol of the Indian farmer who is being forced to change his attitude toward an animal he once saw as a benevolent god. Now he, as many others, see the elephant as a menace that must be addressed.”

There are others. PC Bopanna, a farmer describes how he survived after an elephant pelted him to the ground, but today, hobbles along on a crutch, his leg badly
damaged in the incident, even multiple surgeries later.

Then there is the other side – of elephants losing their habitat, of majestic creatures being robbed of their homes and reduced to residents of tiny spaces once they’re marked as violent and aggressive and eventually, captured. Krishnamurthy speaks with feeling of the 60 elephants housed in captivity in Karnataka, and how they may be alive, but living regimented lives like that for the rest of their days “is no life at all”.

Fences have not worked, as illustrated by viral videos of an elephant slipping under a railway crossing barrier at Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary earlier this year.

Elephants in the Coffee also shows how elephants outsmart all kinds of barriers, trampling them with ease. As the film makes clear, ‘If you make a 20-foot-long moat, the elephant will walk till the 21st foot and cross over there’. Successful models have been few, such as the SMS-based warning system developed by Dr Anand in Valparai to warn workers when an elephant is in the area, or the SMS messaging system at Tata Coffee, demonstrated in the film by biologist Karthic Krishnan.

Conservationist Padma Ashok is also of the opinion that co-existence is the only way forward. She opines that solutions need to be thought of by people local to the area, by taking into consideration the topography, landscape and geographical features of the area. “From the elevation to the length of the river in that area, everything matters. And you need a combination of two-three solutions to tackle the problem, because elephants are able to outsmart most,” she says.

Not everyone agrees, though. Praveen Bhargav, former member of the National Board for Wildlife, believes harmonious co-existence is “one of the greatest myths in conservation”, a utopian idea that “rarely works in the long term with most conflict-prone large mammals”. He advocates “site-specific solutions driven by scientific knowledge and a deep understanding of the social context”. He adds: “Loss of a family member is tragic but it must be seen in perspective. In Karnataka alone, more than 10,000 people have lost their lives in road accidents in 2015 while around 15 people have died due to elephant conflict. Large swathes of elephant habitat have been fragmented/lost due to agriculture, human settlements, encroachments, dams, highways, resorts etc which is a major driver of conflict. There is no magical solution but conflict can be minimised by spatially separating humans and large wildlife to the extent possible by deflecting developmental projects, preventing ad-hoc grants of public lands by the revenue department, incentive-driven voluntary resettlements and innovative ideas for creating viable buffers around reserves involving local communities. In some specific cases, marooned, isolated population of elephants may have to be moved out to minimise conflict.”

Krishnamurthy believes the biggest problem is a lack of education. People have no idea what impact a cup of their coffee is having in the wild. He suggests the promotion of sustainable wildlife products, say by giving “a premium to the coffee you drink”. “At least that way a part of it will go back to wildlife conservation.” He would also like more stringent requirements for ownership of coffee estates and homestays that have mushroomed indiscriminately in these areas over the past few years. “So many of them are owned by people living, say, in Bengaluru. Maybe one way to minimise the number of such estates is to lay down laws that owners have to have strong roots in Coorg,” he explains. And to ensure better welfare of the captured elephants, mahouts need to be treated better and paid more. “Otherwise they’re losing interest and daily wage labourers who are paid a pittance and have no interest in forming a relationship with the animal, are taking their place.” The best answer, though, he believes, is technology. “Even the SMS warning service is eventually a human intervention. Instead, I’m sure that in Bengaluru we can develop technology to identify elephant movement and tracking, where there is no need at all for a person to physically go out there and do it.”

For Grant, the solution also lies in people considering the cost of their cup of coffee. As he puts it: “Americans drink an average of three cups of coffee each, but they have little idea how coffee is grown. India is one of the top exporters of coffee. And now Tata has a joint operating agreement with American coffee giant Starbucks. Yet no one in America who drinks coffee knows that India’s elephants are locked in a struggle for survival with the people who grow coffee.”

The answer isn’t that people stop drinking coffee, he emphasises. Rather, “if every coffee drinker gave a penny for elephants with every cup, we could solve this problem in an instant”.
POLLHave you taken your vaccine shot?
Pick your favorite and click vote
4 + 2 =