Study Highlights Risks of Human Feeding on Sigur Plateau Elephants

Quick Summary

• A study analyzing 11 elephants in the sigur plateau within Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) reveals risks faced by pachyderms that grow habituated to humans.
• The elephants were named after famous Brazilian footballers by conservationist Mark Davidar, who lived in the Sigur untill his death in 2013.
• Published findings titled ‘don’t feed the elephant: A critical examination of food-provisioning wild elephants’ appeared in Ecological Solutions and Evidence journal.
• Conservationists Priya Davidar and Jean-Philippe Puyravaud studied these elephants, which were fed fruits and sugarcane by local resorts to attract tourists.
• Of these 11 male elephants:

– Four died due to human actions like poisoning or being attacked deliberately (e.g., set on fire).
– One elephant, Rivaldo, was seriously injured but survived.
– Six survive today; five have reportedly stopped seeking human food post the COVID tourism lockdowns.

• Elephants exposed to human interaction face increased risk of injury/death through encounters with infrastructure or opposed acts when labeled a nuisance.
• Factors like invasive plant species limiting forest food supply or poor waste management attracting elephants toward humans were noted as possible drivers pushing them from forests.

Indian opinion Analysis

This analysis highlights key challenges stemming from human-elephant interactions driven largely by tourism practices. Provisioning activities aimed at engaging tourists disrupt natural behaviors, creating dependency that proves perilous for wildlife. The tragic cases of unnatural deaths underscore an urgent need for policy intervention targeting responsible eco-tourism and stricter regulations on feeding wildlife.

The findings also point to larger systemic issues concerning habitat health-such as invasive species spread, waste mismanagement near reserves, and bamboo die-offs-indicating broader environmental stewardship is required. Efforts showing de-habituation among surviving elephants signal hope that such behavioral dependencies may be reversible through sustained measures like restricted feeding policies.

For India’s wildlife conservation priorities studies like this demand action from authorities to protect biodiversity while promoting coexistence models based on minimizing conflict between animals and expanding human populations/recreational industries.

Read more: The Hindu