WOUNDED WILD ANIMALS- MAIMED AND MANGLED

    Human history is replete with numerous examples of co-existence of man and wild animals for long. India boasts of a rich tradition of respecting its wild denizens. People have inherited this trait of showering concern and love for animals from ancient times. In general, they revere most wild animals as vehicles of God and appreciate their importance to humanity. For instance, for more than 1500 tribal, spread over 54 hamlets inside the 103 sq.km Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the heart of Mumbai, waghoba or tiger is a deity and they claim to be friends with 40 odd leopards- representing the highest density- occasionally preying on their poultry and cattle. They share the space with animals and harbour no hatred towards them- all through the centuries of co-existence. A similar ‘live and- let- live policy underpins life around many forests and protected areas across the country. However, heavy economic losses sustained due to wildlife attack beyond certain threshold level test the affected peoples’ limits of tolerance and they develop antagonistic feeling towards the animals as well as the forest department. In the face of continuous loss of life and properties, people lose their compassion for these wild animals. 

From Reverence to Revenge

 From the stage of peaceful cohabitation between forest-dwelling and forest fringe communities with wild animals up to the recent past, man-wild animal confrontation has become order of the day at present. Such conflicts between man and wild animal are emerging as a serious problem for wildlife management in many parts of the world – a phenomenon termed as ‘Human- Wildlife Conflict’ (HWC). Wildlife populations of late, are not only left with lesser habitat to meet their nutritional, ecological and behavioural requirements, but the remaining habitat is also increasingly fragmented, leaving wildlife populations confined to relatively small and insulated land parcels. As habitat becomes fragmented, boundary between the wildlife and human footprint areas increases in length and spread, creating more opportunities for conflicts between animal and man. HWC is considered as the foremost challenge to the forest managers and is emerging as the main threat to the continued survival of many species, as wildlife populations in some areas are plummeting due to retaliatory killings of certain species. Today, one opens up to the newspaper and the electronic media reporting almost regularly about the human- animal conflicts, more so along the fringes of the forests across the country. The empathy and reverence shown to wildlife are no longer common among the modern society. Wild animals marching out of their forest boundaries are seen as ‘villains of peace’. People acknowledge the least that it is man who had transgressed into the home and territory of the wild denizens of the jungle. Not alone; but with a host of domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, goat, pigs, poultry and so on. Fairly well populated human settlements in the vicinity of wildlife habitats are turning riskier to wildlife with higher density of open wells, pits, trenches, live wires, barbed fences just outside the forests. This leads to a greater extent of animal injuries and casualties when they move outside the forests. In several instances, the restraint measures taken by the villagers to contain wild animal damage prove injurious or fatal. 

Conflict of different sorts

A general assessment of such distress conditions in respect of some animal species across several States and the causes there for are summarized. 

Elephant -Fall in open wells, ground level tank, pits, irrigation canals, muddy slush, run over by trains or heavy vehicles, entangled in snare wires, trap in quick sand, rock crevices, floods  arising due to straying for food and water, existence of railway lines, roads, and irrigation canals within forests in the migratory route, low level and sagging transmission lines, traps set for small games 

Panther/tiger/ Lion- Fall in open well, caught in snare, run over by vehicles due to roads running through forests, meat waste dumped in forest vicinity, domestic livestock in forest fringes 

Indian Bison -  Fall in open well, ground-level reservoir, culvert pit along roadside, entangled in snare wires as a result of chase by domestic dogs, presence of open well and large ground level reservoir without parapet wall, road side culvert pits, snare set for games

Sloth bear - Fall in open well, trap in snare in view of orchard trees along forest fringes, open well, trap set for small games 

Spotted Deer- Trap in snare, road run over by vehicles, fall in open well/ground level tank due to raising of agricultural crops along forest boundaries, open well without parapet wall, roads passing through forest areas, chase by domestic dogs 

Primates - Trap in snare wire, vehicle hit due to setting of snares for small games, vehicle movement through forests.

    In this episode, I wish to present the readers with the circumstances in which wild animals meet with miserable conditions that threaten their life. 

1. Non-target animals getting trapped in snares set up for small animals 

2. Non-target animals getting injured by biting explosive laden fruits 

3. Animals accidentally falling into open wells 

4. Hit and run by vehicles 

Wild animals etched out from their home turf 

    As the people brought the buffer lands adjoining the forests under plough and began cultivating an assortment of agricultural and horticultural crops, they inadvertently invited the wild herbivores from the forests into the farm fields. Untethered cattle let off freely for grazing within and in the fringe of the forests become the victims of carnivore attack. Farmers close to forest margins set snares of metal wires along their cultivated fields to ward off small wild herbivores like wild pig, deer, hare etc from foraging into their fields or with an intention of hunting small mammals. Incidents involving the straying of carnivores like panther, tiger and mega herbivores like elephant and bison cause considerable anxiety and arouse panic reaction among the people in the respective areas. Besides, the strayed animals also meet with many distress situations that might lead to death or injury to the wild animal in question.            There are many occasions in which non-target animals that move in such locations get ensnared in these metal strips or barbed wires. Sometimes even large animals like elephant are found entangled. When the author was heading the Coimbatore circle of Tamil Nadu about two decades ago, staff reported of an adult female elephant moving along the boundary of Boluvampatti Reserved Forest close to Tamil Nadu-Kerala interstate boundary. When the animal was first sighted in the patta fields, the wire snare would have been on its leg for quite some period, as by that time the thick wire constricted the limb of the elephant stiff and firmly. The elephant was not able to move for long distance for foraging and was mostly staying within 500 meter radius. Evaluation of the condition of the animal by the Forest department revealed that the string of wire embedded deep into the leg over which fresh flesh grew so much so the leg appeared in two distinct segments. As fate had it, the elephant didn’t survive for many days thereafter and succumbed due to poor nourishment and emancipation.

                                                      Elephant with snare wire deeply embedded

     Leopards get frequently involved in incidence of trapping in snares, most commonly reported from the tea fields and coffee gardens adjacent to forest boundaries in the Nilgiris. As such incidents happen close to human-inhabited areas, the Forest department is informed immediately. Whenever, salvage mission is launched by the forest staff without loss of time, the ensnared animal gets successfully saved. I was witness to at least half a dozen instances of entrapped leopards, rescued from the snares and rehabilitated into wilderness in the Nilgiris forests during my five years tenure in Coimbatore circle.    

        

                                                    A panther killed due to a snare wire

    Keeping country bomb wrapped in some sugary food or meat as bait is practiced clandestinely in some places to injure or kill the animal, which try to consume it. This is generally practiced for bagging wild boars. A trend of embedding some crude but powerful country bomb (called ‘avuttu’ in local parlance) into jack fruits is very often a reported practice to injure the wild elephants raiding the plantation/farm areas around Gudalur in the Nilgiris, which cause irreversible damage to the elephants and their ultimate death. Once the jaws of the elephant get tattered, they lose their ability to forage and eventually meet with pitiable death. Same happens to the big cats like tiger or leopard, who return back to the carcass of the domestic animal hunted by them for feeding. It is common to see pellet injuries on the bodies of crop raiding elephants, indicating the clandestine use of muzzle load guns by farmers to chase them away. A makhna (tuskless male) elephant that was proclaimed as a known man killer in Gudalur region in the Nilgiris and the adjacent Wyanad in Kerala, when captured and brought from the wild to the Mudumalai camp for further maintenance was found to bear scores of bullet wounds all through its body from the many gunshots fired by the farmers of the area over years. The wildlife veterinarians had to nurse the wounds on the pachyderm for nearly a couple of months during which time they removed the pellets one after another surgically. 

    Another very common problem in most of the forest fringe areas is the presence of many active and abandoned open wells without proper parapet walls. We have numerous incidents in the country, where elephant, Indian bison, lion, leopard, sloth bear, deer etc accidentally falling into such wells. These cause death of animals unless attended to without loss of time. If the animal falls into a well with sufficient water and the fall is noticed and followed up with the recovery mission, it is rescued and rehabilitated successfully. In the past, common sense approach helped to rescue the animal in distress. For instance, sending down a sturdy bamboo pole of adequate length across the walls of a deep open well facilitated a leopard to escape from the well by climbing the same at ease. On many occasions, the fallen leopard was restrained by chemical immobilization and recovered through nets under sedated condition and later on released into the forests after the animal became conscious.

                                              An elephant being rescued from an open well

    However, the affected animal is not lucky all the times and instances are many when the animal succumbs to the free fall with broken limbs and ribs. It is estimated that nearly 40 per cent of India’s Asiatic lion population lives outside forest areas, which are routinely spotted on private farms and lands near village homes. Nearly 20000 unguarded, open wells in farm lands have acted as traps, leading to many drowning incidents and death of lions. We have seen in the earlier blogs that roads too pose grave danger to wild animals. Due to increase in road density and presence of many busy road and rail sections passing through wildlife habitats, incidents of hit and run by speeding vehicles and locomotive are occurring frequently. Animals including even larger mammals such as elephant, bison, tiger, leopard are impacted by such incidents. Smaller animals like primates are inflicted with permanent disabilities such as loss of limbs due to vehicles run over. 

                                                    Wounded bonnet macaque being treated

Post-script 

        We must understand that there are no ‘ready-made’ and ‘quick-fix’ answers to man-animal conflict situations, in view of the complexities of HWC and the uniqueness of each incident. The solutions in this regard are often found to be specific to the species or the area concerned and they need to be creative and simple, as have been demonstrated through incidents described in the earlier posts on tiger and sloth bear.