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Trained elephants to counter wild jumbos in AP
by K Basiri Reddy

          Vizag (Andhra Pradesh): The forest officials of Andhra Pradesh are using trained elephants to counter wild jumbos. The wild elephants go on the rampage and kill people. In some villages along the Orissa border four villagers were killed in the last one week alone.Jayanti is one of the dozens of elephants trained at a camp in Chittoor District, to befriend her wild friends and take them away from human habitation. Forest officer P.V. Ramana says once Jayanti is released among the herd, the task of diverting the herd should take about one week. "Officers have already reached those villages, and will decide the future course of the operation. Jayanti is trained to make friends with the other elephants, and divert them off the track they are following now," said Ramana. With forests areas fast depleting, elephants seeking food, come to villages and sometimes raid the fields. Some emerge from the jungle to take advantage of the paddy harvest, others have discovered a taste for local liquor, and drink everything they can lay their trunks on. From China to Indonesia, India to Vietnam, Asian elephants are in danger, their habitats shrinking fast, and their communities increasingly isolated. According to the 2005 national census, there are between 25,000 to 28,000 elephants in India, including 1,500 male tuskers of breeding age. Elephants are a protected and endangered species in India, with the country having nearly half of the world's 60,000 Asian elephants. But conservationists say the pachyderm population has fallen rapidly in recent years because of a loss of habitat caused by human encroachment in forest areas, leading to human-elephant conflicts.
- August 25,  2007