Maharashtra: Tusked guests who came from Chhattisgarh put down roots

The herd which had a calf born in 2021 in it, seen in eastern Maharashtra

Another newborn calf, a few days old, has been observed in the herd, suggesting that the elephants from Chhattisgarh that entered eastern Maharashtra have decided to settle there. The lone male tusker from the herd died of electrocution last week. This is the second calf born in the herd in Maharashtra.

Wildlife lover Sagnik Sengupta, co-founder NGO Stripes and Green Earth Foundation, which has been assisting the Maharashtra Forest Department in tracking the elephants told mid-day that his team had told him they had spotted elephant calf footprints at Armori in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. "We got confirmation of the newborn calf couple of days back while counting the herd using a thermal drone.

Earlier we had counted 23 elephants which included the tusker which got electrocuted in Chandrapur recently. Yesterday's count gave us 23 numbers of elephants, including the newborn calf," Sengupta said. This is the second time that a female in the herd has given birth in Wadsa division. The first time a calf was born in the same herd in November 2021 at Kurkheda range.

"This time the placenta was not found but our team had a doubt from the foot prints. For the past few days the behaviour of the herd has also been very aggressive and we had not seen this till date. Now we know the exact reason for the same, the herd is also aggressive due to tiger presence almost everywhere," added Sengupta.

Residents of Vidarbha

He also said that the arrival of the new member is definitely good news, after the death of the tusker, but now as the herd has become resident in Vidarbha, its high time that a long-term mitigation plan is chalked out for these pachyderms and in future more could migrate from Chhattisgarh. As the elephants might not return to Chhattisgarh, the challenging task before the Maharashtra forest department is to regularly monitor them in order to prevent conflict. Sengupta has also submitted a proposal to Maharashtra forest department for a fiveyear mitigation plan, which includes monitoring of the elephants in the districts of Gadchiroli, Gondia, Brahmapuri and Bhandara as it is anticipated that the elephants may move to Brahmapuri and Bhandara.

Why they moved

In October 2021, a herd of elephants entered the state's Gadchiroli district from Chhattisgarh. While the elephants went back to Chhattisgarh in March 2022, they returned to Gadchiroli in August 2022 and since then have been here in Maharashtra. It is being said that the disturbance and habitat loss due to large scale coal and iron ore mining in Chhattisgarh might be the reason for the herd to enter Maharashtra. For now, at least the availability of water bodies including small and big ponds, lakes and abundance of food in the forests of Gadchiroli, Gondia and Navegaon areas of eastern Maharashtra seem to be another reason why the giants prefer this area.

23
No of elephants that came to state