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.
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.
