field trip to jaypur

we finished our first field trip today. this time we went to jaypur of bankura district. we had information from a friend in forest dept that currently 8-9 elephants are staying in this area. the prime location was Basudebpur.

so we went directly to basudebpur bit office and talked with the bit officer. we had talked with various kind of people during our stay to know about the conflict. we have seen a very casual approach towards elephants. people have accepted the elephants in their lives. they have accepted this daily routine of chasing away elephants from their fields. it is not the elephants but the govt they are angry with. they have dis-satisfaction with the percentage they get from govt and also with the rate of compensation.

another important point is that through the people-govt partnership project, the jungles of this area has grown very healthy. this kind of dense forest is very crucial for elephants to take shelter.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkujchS1N7I&feature=youtube_gdata_player

love of jackfruit, or desperation?

reports came in of Elephant attack from Salboni, West Bengal. 4 elephants are attacking, or correctly said, raiding backyard trees, specially jackfruit and mangos. Well, these fruits are in season. these 4 elephants make a male group and are led by a huge tusker. they are making every effort to drive them out of the locality unfruitful. even the forest dept have lost hope and waiting for the fruiting season to be over.

elephants love fruits very much. but it is not normal for them to raid fruits from backyard gardens. we do consider that lone males are more courageous than the family groups consisting mainly females. but still this does not add up. for that we need to enter the jungle in which they live in. this jungle is called coppice sal forest. which means, this is the secondary growth after cutting the primary sal trees. this forest lacks any fruiting trees. only food they get are various types of foliage. also, the size of forests have became so small that it can not supply the amount of food (more than 200kgs) for long. so the elephant has to find food in other places. also, young males has a compulsion to grow bigger to climb the ladder of power in their society. for that they need more nutritious food and these fruits are their solution.so, young males grows a sweet tooth.

one thing to remember that though the elephants are raiding fruits in very close counter of human, they have not attacked human intentionally because that is not what they are after. but repeated human interfere may agitate the elephants and then accident can happen. that is also the reason why the forest dept is staying put and waiting for the season to be over. the the elephants will try to move to another place and it will be easier to guide them to the forest again. 

sex drive

why elephants kill people?? many reason is there.

one of the reason for the young males is their sex drive.
like many other animals, elephants too have a well established hierarchy of power. one of the main benifit to be on the top is the right to have sex. so, when a more powerful male enters a scene where a younger male is trying to woo a female, the younger male has to leave the female or he has to leave the female after being defeated in fight with the bigger male. now what he does??

if the jungle has localities in its fringe area, the defeated male comes to the locality and breakes houses and other things. if some unfortunate people come in sight, he may also kill it purposefully just to release its fustration.

does not this sound very much like humans?? on this similarity, i found another one.
as elephants can move its penis at his will, he too can masturbate and do musturbate like human by moving and hitting his penis on his belly to release himself.
another very interesting incident is that, elephants too show homo-sexuality. according to west bengal forest dept, almost 45% of its male departmental elephants show this behaviour. one particular incident i should mention. a very renowed elephant of west bengal forest dept is Jatraprasad. one day when he was foraging in jungle with a smaller male, the caretaker left them for a while alone. some time later the smaller male was not found. later he was found dead in nearby jungle. departmental people suspect that Jatraprasad had raped it. and the smaller male was not able to cope with the injury inflicted by the huge figure of Jatraprasad. on this note i want to mention that Jatraprasad had never shown interest on any female elephant who were there with him.

doesn't this also sound like human????

MVI a unfortunate elephant

MVI. no, he is not our state dept official. he is an unfortunate elephant, whose home has been destroyed by humans.

while searching for information on south bengal elephants, i found this funny but tragic incident. on Joda-Barbil road of Orissa, a 45 yr old wild elephant had created a virtual tollgate. he charges food from every truck, otherwise the roads stays blocked. he is one of those unfortunate elephants who have lost their home forest on the hand of humans. MVI still have not caused any injury to humans but accidents may happen anytime.

and when that will happen, we will declare him as rouge in the first chance and will pressurise the forest dept to kill him. that is one thing we can do best.

13th June, 2014

a report i stumbled upon a few days back suddenly made my mind thinking.

this is from the official report of west bengal forest dept. so, this made me think how many elephants are involved in this incidents??

this population is only 0.5% of total Indian population of elephants. but the killing is highest here.

that raises the question WHY???