Researcher Finds Male Elephants Cornered to Kanakapura Region by Two Major Roads, Fears It Affects Their "Gene Pool"
Restricted elephant movement due to major roads has concentrated male elephants in Kanakapura, threatening their gene pool, a researcher says.
Unlike in Hassan, Kodagu districts where male and female elephants stray to villages and farm fields but in Kanakapura region having Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and Bannerghatta National Park in close vicinity, as many as 41 only male elephants have formed groups comprising 5 to 8 to raid crops easily accessible in farm fields.
A forest official pointed to one such group of male elephants led by an elephant named as “Rowdy Ranga.” His group consisted of 5 male elephants and “Rowdy Ranga" used to lead the group to raid crops especially in Machinabele region. “Rowdy Ranga" was robustly built and feared none," which made the villagers name him "Rowdy Ranga," recalled the officer.
“Rowdy Ranga” was captured and shifted to an elephant camp in Nagarahole National Park where he died after he was knocked down by a speeding bus inside the Park, several years back.
A researcher stated “Male elephants have been cornered now owing to two major roads-NICE and Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway cutting their movements to North-East such as from Bannerghatta of Bengaluru to Tumakuru side.” Earlier, elephants used to access Tumakuru via Kumbalgodu, Machinabele, Savanadurga and Dabospet and the other route was Kanakapura-Ramanagar-Channapatna. The group of elephants returned back to Kanakapura the same route which they passed to reach Tumakuru.
A wildlife researcher of a ngo working with forest department in assisting the personnel in elephant capture operations in Karnataka told Deccan Chronicle on Monday ‘It is natural in the wild that a male elephant gets separated from its mother or driven away and such male elephants have joined one or the male groups and their numbers have grown.”
Having such huge concentration of male elephants in a particular region affects elephants’ “gene pool” besides fights among males are a common thing which escalate man-animal conflict in Kanakapura and surrounding areas of the district, observed the researcher who is familiar with behaviour of elephants in Bannerghatta-Hosur (Tamil Nadu) regions.
The researcher pointed to the recent capture of a male elephant in Channapatna by forest personnel to mitigate man-elephant conflict and aversion to the capture, one his companion created ruckus in Channapatna town. The male elephant roamed the town in search of his companion.
Apart from their restricted movements, the researcher said “the areas of Magadi, Channapatna, and Ramnagar have patches of forest areas. Though there is availability of food and water, these male elephants have access to varieties of crops in farm fields to raid at nights and settle during daytime.” However, the researcher stated “Man-elephant conflict in the vicinity of Kanakapura is as chronic as in Hassan and Kodagu districts.”
