Andrew Westbury

Some say the wild elephants of eastern Nepal are “doomed”. Citing the human-elephant conflict in the area, Petra Furaha ten Velde of the World Wildlife Fund stated in her 1997 Status Report of Nepal’s Wild Elephant Population that the elephant’s in eastern Nepal only option for survival rests in either “translocation or domestication”. Without this, she felt eastern Nepal’s human-elephant conflict and its cycle of property damage, crop raiding, human-elephant death and injury would spiral out of control. Now, almost eight years later, the human-elephant conflict in eastern Nepal is perhaps worse than Velde’s predictions. This year, five people died, two elephants were victims of revenge killings, property and crop losses exceeded tens of millions of rupees. Furthermore, in alarming new developments, elephants are now travelling farther and staying longer than ever in eastern Nepal; significantly expanding the scope of the conflict.

Despite all this, however, international conservation organisations and concerned HMG bodies still have not pursued any formally organised elephant management programmes or simple conflict mitigation measures in eastern Nepal. The severity of the current situation and the changes in the elephant migratory patterns call for immediate action. Without an organised effort, these elephants are indeed “doomed.”

New migratory routes of elephants from the central terai may indicate permanent changes. In an unprecedented event, a large herd of elephants from the Parsa Wildlife Reserve and the Royal Chitwan National Park left the confines of these protected areas and for several months rampaged across Sarlahi district. If past migratory changes are any indication, the presence of elephants in Sarlahi could become a new and dangerous trend. On January 1, 23 elephants reportedly coming from Royal Chitwan National Park entered Sarlahi district and during several days of crop raiding destroyed 12 houses. Later, a team comprised of 500 villagers, 50 personnel from the District Forestry Office, four domesticated elephants and 19 trained mahouts attempted in vain to drive the elephants out of Sarlahi and back into the Chitwan/Parsa area. These elephants use to reside solely in the Parsa Wildlife Reserve but, reacting to the conversion of their water source into a fish farming area, these herds expanded their ranges to include Royal Chitwan National Park and now can be seen there year round. Perhaps their new migration to Sarlahi could similarly become a long-term trend. If so, this expansion could add another entire district to the front in eastern Nepals’ human-elephant conflict.

One village in eastern Nepal has decided to do something to address the conflict. Farmers from Bahundhagi VDC in Jhapa district along with two Peace Corps Volunteers are collaborating to apply different non-lethal elephant deterrents in the VDCs’ conflict zones. They have found that the cultivation of chilli peppers, simple trench digging, and a multitude of other inexpensive deterrent agents can significantly reduce the intensity of elephant raids.

The introduction of these elephant deterrents in Bahundhagi VDC has helped mobilized the community and shown farmers that effective alternatives to lethal methods do exist. Though promising, this small step forward in the human-elephant conflict in eastern Nepal is not enough. HMG bodies and international conservation organizations should take notice and help to spread the message of non-lethal deterrents across the region. Now is the time to act before these “doomed” populations are lost forever.