Who owns the land?

3:20 pm We watched this herd of five elephants struggling to cross a farm to reach a waterhole which was about 600 meters away (note the three elephants near to the mango orchard).

4.39 pm: Elephants arrive up the valley to cross the orchard. They took over an hour to cross about 300 metres.

4.59 pm: The elephants quietly sneak past the resort to go to a nearby waterhole constantly hounded by dogs and resort guards.

5.23 pm: The pachyderms cautiously arrive at the water hole taking about 25 minutes to cover a short distance of 150 meters.

5.26 pm: On this hot afternoon the elephants enter the waterhole to quench their thirst.

5.27 pm: Within a minute one of the females is alarmed as domestic dogs appear at the water hole barking at the elephants.

5.27 pm: Panicked by the pack of four dogs the elephants run away from the water hole fearing for the security of their calves. Normally they spend elaborate amount of time at waterholes during summer days.

5.29: One of the adult elephants takes the calves away to safety and other the two take guard against the dogs before chasing them. Once the dogs leave the elephants vanish into the forests and no one knows how long further they need to travel before they get another waterhole. All images: Sanjay Gubbi

“This is my land” assertively said the man in his mid 40s with dark sunglasses and a red hat. He was getting his land surveyed that was recently bought to set up a resort and spa centre. The man continued “I am doing this for conservation”. Little did he realise that his planned resort was completely on the other banks of wildlife conservation. The land was in the middle of one of the last remaining wildlife corridors in Bandipur. Pugmarks of tiger and wild dogs crisscrossed the piece of land. Elephant dung was strewn across the land parcel. A nullah flowing at the edge of the land created a sheltered place for animals to move from the tiger reserve to Satyamangalam and Mudumalai through these swathes of scrub forests.

As part of the Governmental efforts to bring investment into tourism industry, a single window system had been set up to clear projects; a laudable approach. However using these three words the Government gave away this wildlife corridor. I wish the project clearing agencies realised that this was also one of the last windows for elephants to move from Bandipur to Lokkere, Upkarabetta and further to forests in Tamilnadu.

With increased disposable incomes wildlife reserves have become favoured weekend and holiday getaways. To cater to this urban demand, several resorts have mushroomed around some of our important protected areas. Though it is important to develop infrastructure for tourism, strict codes are indispensable. Some tourism resorts are becoming a challenge for wildlife conservation with some of the projects cutting off wildlife migratory corridors.

For instance Bandipur has about 5000 acres of forests on land that belongs to revenue department. These lands are prime corridors for wildlife to move from eastern parts of Bandipur to Satyamangalam and Mudhumalai in Tamilnadu. Though for a layman this can look like patches of scrub, they hold all the large vertebrates that Bandipur has in its core.

Mega herbivores such as elephants move vast areas to meet their food requirements. Hence conserving these forests is critical for protecting the corridors. Breakage of these corridors will affect movement and also increase human-wildlife conflict. Apart from total loss of habitats, wildlife faces restriction on their movement due to the electric fences and physical barriers installed by the resorts. Sometimes the only sources of water for wildlife will be cut off leaving the animals to move to agricultural fields to find water.

Before the nine percent growth mantra these forests had little or no value with villagers showing little interest in these properties. Now with these lands being high worth real estate, it has pushed people to even encroach land en mass to be further sold to construct resorts. Villagers make a pecuniary fortune frittering for a few days, city dwellers get their holiday resorts and the entrepreneurs will fill their kitty. I wonder what wildlife gets. Whose land is it anyway?

Forest and revenue department have now taken keen interest in conserving these land parcels. These areas form part of the buffer zone of Bandipur Tiger Reserve and recently notified as eco-sensitive area. Hopefully wildlife will soon have a right over these lands.

An edited version of this article was published in Deccan Herald on 29-03-2011

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/149522/who-owns-land.html