Acquire and forget
Kaniyanapura is a small village nestled in the foothills of the Western Ghats, Karnataka on the north east border of the Bandipur National Park. It connects Bandipur, which is home to 1992 elephants, and the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) sanctuary, which has 500 elephants.
The state Revenue Department handed over 37.6 hectares of reserve forest land to the forest department in 2000. This was the first elephant corridor funded by Project Elephant (PE). PE also sanctioned Rs 21 lakh for the monitoring of the corridor. The corridor was acquired to ensure gene flow as it connects the Eastern Ghats with the Western Ghats, says C K Kanta Raju, divisional forest officer, Bandipur National Park. "We assume that 500-800 elephants use this corridor," appends Venkata Gowda, Moyar Range Officer. However, the forest department has not undertaken any studies to monitor the actual utility of this corridor since its investiture.
Rs 12 lakh have been spent to dig elephant-proof trench all along the border. "But one can easily walk across the ditch that divides the park from Kaniyanapura village," says Muddappa, a resident. "The trench is of no use; the elephants still manage to enter the fields and damage crops worth Rs 30,000 each year, and the forest department has refused to pay us compensation since they dug this trench." says another villager Ganganna. "If it is only crop loss, we can tolerate it, but in January 2003 the elephants killed two of my relatives," laments Maddappa.