The recent death of a Kadar tribesman in Tamil Nadu’s Anamalai Tiger Reserve in an elephant attack has left the indigenous community and conservationists in shock as Kadars are known to co-exist with wild elephants for ages. This is the latest glimpse of the escalating human–elephant negative interactions in Tamil Nadu, largely stemming from reasons including habitat degradation, developmental works in forest buffers and obstructions in critical elephant movement paths or corridors, which link two or more habitats.
Taking serious note of the imminent danger, the Tamil Nadu government formed a panel to identify elephant corridors. The panel, headed by Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests V. Naganathan, reassessed the existing corridors in the State, including the ones identified in studies conducted by the Project Elephant Division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in the past.
Infographics | Waking to the call of the wild
