With increasing incidents of wild elephants entering villages in the Madukkarai region of Coimbatore, conservationists are raising concerns over the disturbances and infrastructural developments taking place along the proposed Kalkothy – Walayar elephant corridor, a critical route for elephants to move between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
It is one of the 42 corridors identified by the State government appointed Elephant Corridor Committee.
Forest Department officials and biologists say that disturbances in places bordering forests are forcing wild elephants to enter villages and engage in crop raiding. Recently, a tusker that entered Karadimadai village attacked three people on a single night.
The proposed corridor links Boluvampatti and Madukkarai forest ranges in the Coimbatore Forest Division with Walayar range in the Palakkad Forest Division.
As per a study conducted by conservation NGO Osai in 2023, the proposed corridor passing through Adukku Paari and Ettimadai provides functional connectivity between the habitat used by elephants, approximately 178 sq.km, in the Palakkad Division with about 192.73 sq. km habitat in Tamil Nadu’s Boluvampatti range and Kerala’s Siruvani forest region in the Mannarkkad Forest Division.
The study found several major reasons for the bottleneck in the corridor, including land use change abutting the forest boundaries near Kalkothy tribal settlement and in the Alandurai revenue village, construction site of Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and constructions of several private educational institutions.
As per the study, the reserve forest within the twenty degree gradient is intact but narrow at most places. Agriculture lands, fallow lands, housing colonies, institutions abut the corridor. The 500 metre stairway of Ayyasamy temple is a linear infrastructure in the corridor.
K. Kalidasan of Osai said tremendous land use change has taken place along the proposed corridor in the past 20 years. He wanted the Government to declare the 39-km stretch used by elephants as a corridor and remove disturbances.
“Coimbatore Forest Division acts as a major connecting link between Nilambur- Silent Valley areas in Kerala with Sathyamangalam, the Nilgiris and to the Eastern Ghats. The corridor has to be protected to ensure elephant movement between forests in the two States. Like in tiger reserves, the Government must declare buffer and eco-sensitive zones for elephant habitats,” said Mr. Kalidasan, who wanted authorities to check construction activities going on along the forest buffer.
B. Ramakrishnan, Assistant Professor at the Department of Wildlife Biology at the Government Arts College, Udhagamandalam, who had studied the elephant movement pattern and habitat use along the proposed corridor area in 2006, said protecting the proposed corridor is highly important to ensure genetic exchange.
A biologist, who did not want to be named, said more studies have to be done to understand the present situation of the proposed corridor area, covering habitat use, land use pattern changes, disturbances, violations (if any) in constructions, etc, to ensure smooth passage of elephants.
