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Elephant corridors in India: lessons for other elephant range countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

A. J. T. Johnsingh  and
A. Christy Williams
A. J. T. Johnsingh
Affiliation:
A. J. T. Johnsingh (corresponding author)
A. Christy Williams
Affiliation:
A. Christy Williams Wildlife Institute of India, PO Box 18, Dehra Dun-248 001, India. E-mail: ajtjohnsingh@wii.gov.in
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Abstract

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The conservation status of five elephant corridors in different regions of India is discussed. Elephants have not used the 13-km-wide corridor between Ariankavu and Thenmalai, in the southern portion of the Western Ghats for several decades because a rail track and road, both of which are bordered by human habitations, cross it. The future of the Chilla–Motichur and Rajaji–Corbett corridors, which hold the Rajaji–Corbett elephant population in north-west India as one entity, is bleak. It is still possible for elephants to use the Kallar–Jaccanari corridor linking the 4000-strong elephant population of northern and southern Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in southern India. It may be possible to save the Siju–Rewak corridor, which connects the elephant populations on either side of the River Simsang in north-east India. The authors suggest that other Asian countries that have elephant populations and that are capable of establishing large conservation units, should have master plans that should detail possible developmental activities around existing wildlife habitats. Establishing vast protected areas for large mammals, however, would need political will and regular communication among the nations' development planners, wildlife managers and researchers.

Keywords

Asian elephantdevelopmental activitiesElephas maximushabitat fragmentationwildlife corridors.
Type
Research Article
Information
Oryx , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , July 1999 , pp. 210 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1999

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