JoTT COMMUNI C ATION 4(14): 3284–3293 Elephant Elephas maximus Linnaeus (Proboscidea: Elephantidae) migration paths in the Nilgiri Hills, India in the late 1970s E.R.C. Davidar 1, Peter Davidar 2, Priya Davidar 3 & Jean-Philippe Puyravaud 4 1 Deceased. 2,4 ECOS, 9A Frédéric Ozanam St., Colas Nagar, Puducherry 605001, India 3 Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Puducherry 605014, India Email: 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected] (corresponding author) Date of publication (online): 26 November 2012 Abstract: The study presented was carried out in 1978 with the support of the Asian Date of publication (print): 26 November 2012 Elephant Specialist Group (AsESG) of the International Union for the Conservation of ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC). Its objective was to investigate the impediments to elephant movement in the Nilgiri Hills, in the Western Ghats of India, Editor: Heidi Riddle in an attempt to suggest positive steps to encourage movement through the provision Manuscript details: of corridors. The report was left unpublished, but given its importance as a reference Ms # o3008 document for the conservation of the Asian elephant in the Nilgiris, in 2011 the last two Received 15 November 2011 authors decided to publish it. The process of habitat fragmentation has been going on Final received 31 August 2012 ever since man started agriculture. But this problem has, of late, become much more Finally accepted 15 October 2012 acute due to mounting pressure on land. The corridor concept applied to wildlife is the provision of a free and, as far as possible, unimpeded way for the passage of wild Citation: Davidar, E.R.C., P. Davidar, P. Davidar & J.-P. Puyravaud (2012). Elephant Elephas animals between two wildlife zones. A corridor’s more important function is to prevent maximus Linnaeus (Proboscidea: Elephantidae) wild animals from getting isolated in small pocket-like islands. Maintaining elephant migration paths in the Nilgiri Hills, India in the habitat connectivity in and around the Nilgiris rests upon the understanding that elephant late 1970s. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(14): populations of the several protected areas of the now Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve must 3284–3293. remain active. The first author surveyed the Nilgiris on foot and on elephant back for several months in 1978. It was concluded that four areas (the Nilgiri north slopes and © E.R.C. Davidar, Peter Davidar, Copyright: Deccan Plateau, the south and southeastern slopes, the Gudalur Plateau, and the upper Priya Davidar & Jean-Philippe Puyravaud 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported plateau) harboured together 10 corridors that needed to be maintained, or restored, or License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this even partially restored. article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing Keywords: Asian Elephant, connectivity, conservation, corridors, Elephas maximus adequate credit to the authors and the source Linnaeus, habitat, Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. of publication. Author Details, Author Contribution and Acknowledgements: see end of this article. PREFACE The work presented here was undertaken by the late E.R.C. Davidar for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AsESG) in the second half of the 1970s. The study was promoted by the late Mr. J.C. Daniel, former Chairman, IUCN AsESG, and former Vice-President of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). Forty years ago, naturalists started to be concerned about Asian Elephant Elephas maximus migrations. Nothing much was known about it but biologists could see that development in the Nilgiri Mountains (Western Ghats of India) posed more and more obstacles to the free movement of elephants. Geographic information systems (GISs) were in their infancy, the Landsat satellite program had just started, and personal urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8DBD3959-3024- computers were rare. In order to visualize how elephants migrated, there 43AE-938E-EA234D2852B0 was no other way than to go to the field, observe and produce maps, as were doing land surveyors. OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOAD Only few people were interested in spending months in jungles 3284 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | November 2012 | 4(14): 3284–3293 Elephant migration in the late 1970s E.R.C. Davidar et al. “infested” (the term used at that time) by dangerous functional corridors and also added what he knew to wildlife. E.R.C. Davidar was one of them and had be recently lost major elephant corridors. already done extensive field surveys all over the Corridors, in his view, were meant to maintain Western Ghats and the Nilgiris (e.g. Davidar 1978). connectivity among core habitats and were necessary With 25 years of experience in this rough terrain, he (i) outside protected areas, or (ii) within a potentially walked or visited on elephant back all habitats he threatened protected area. To him, it was obvious that thought were of importance. particular former passages had to be restored because E.R.C. Davidar finalized the first version of his they were, and still are, potential areas for human / text “Investigation of elephant migration paths in the elephant conflict. If restoration was impossible, it was Nilgiri Hills and inquiry into impediments to the free still of value to note the place of a former corridor, movement of elephants and recommendations for the because future generations might be more sensitive to provision of corridors for their movement” in 1981, the fate of the elephants than ours. and submitted it to Mr. J.C. Daniel for comments. The The reader must be warned that the manuscript study remained a poorly circulated, unpublished draft. and study styles are very much at variance with After seeking permission from the IUCN AsESG and present-day scientific articles. Moreover, the content the BNHS in 2011, the two last authors decided to of the original draft report has been shortened. The publish the report. text has been edited only when minor changes Why should we publish an old report as wildlife regarding the expression were absolutely necessary. science in India has considerably evolved since the Recommendations are unchanged. Location names seventies? There were several reasons. Firstly, it was have been retained as per the draft. For example, the first study of elephant corridors in India. Due to “Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary” was kept instead the amazing field experience of the lead author E.R.C. of “Mudumalai Tiger Reserve”, as it is called today. Davidar, a life-time of treks and interaction with No actualized literature has been added except in the shikaris (guides of hunting parties) who had an intimate preface. Wherever text has been added in 2011, it is in knowledge of the jungle, he came to draw general between brackets [ ]. patterns of elephant migrations in the Nilgiris. The report is consequently a historical record of elephant movements, and an invaluable baseline scenario for INVESTIGATING ELEPHANT PATHS IN THE any study on corridors for this region. Secondly, it is NILGIRIS referred to in technical surveys (Menon et al. 2005), Forest Department master documents (Tamil Nadu The Nilgiri Hills, located between 11010’–11030’N Forest Department, 2009), newspapers1, scientific & 76025’–77000’E, are an off-shoot of the Western articles (i.e. Johnsingh & Williams 1999), and books Ghats where the Eastern Ghats terminate. The (i.e. Santiapillai & Jackson 1990), but available to only geographical area of the Nilgiri District is 2,452km2, a handful of specialists. Thirdly and most importantly, and the area covered by this report including forests E.R.C. Davidar understood that his mission of in Kerala and the Coimbatore District in Tamil Nadu, recording corridors was “a purely negative exercise”, is 3,000km2 approximately (Image 1). This region and extended the scope of the study. His reasoning encompasses several forest types, which are mostly was that focusing on functional elephants corridors tropical wet evergreen, tropical semievergreen, was biased since it would not take into consideration tropical moistdeciduous, and montane wet temperate corridors that were recently lost at the time of the types of forests (Champion & Seth 1968). This study, which has implications for conservation. These region is served by both the south-west and north- lost corridors needed to be restored to reduce conflict east monsoons, but there is considerable variability with elephants and to properly manage elephant in rainfall and temperature in the different areas since populations. Following this rationale, he recorded elevation ranges between 200 and 2,600 m. Elephants are great wanderers. In Africa, elephants 1 http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename= Loxodonta africana have been known to cover great Ne3000411Corridor.asp distances, and their wanderings have been recorded Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | November 2012 | 4(14): 3284–3293 3285 Elephant migration in the late 1970s E.R.C. Davidar et al. Image 1. Study area with the 10 reported corridors (see text for details) and the four regions in which ecosystem connectivity was severed or under threat: (I) the northern slopes and the southern portion of the Deccan Plateau, (II) the south and south-eastern slopes, (III) the Gudalur plateau, and (IV) the upper plateau with meticulous care by researchers. There are that the elephants had done their gradient survey for few such records for the Asian elephants, although them! Elephant depredations and damage to crops are migrations, though not on a similar scale as in Africa, less concentrated due to such movement. Encouraging do occur. In the Nilgiris, unlike in most places, there movement of wildlife is a necessary tool in wildlife is scope for both lateral as well as vertical movement. management. There also appears to be definite migratory seasons, As the Nilgiri Hills developed, the migration paths although solitary bulls as well as bull parties are on the began to shift.