The Forest Department has installed cameras to monitor elephants in five locations on the busy Mettupalayam-Udhagamandalam road where the ghat section of the National Highway-67 passes through the ecologically important Kallar elephant corridor.
The joint initiative by the Forest Department and WWF-India is to assess the number of elephants using the corridor, its functionality, seasonal movements and the difficulties elephants face. Though lone tuskers are found to have been crossing the road without much difficulty, vehicular movement to and from the Nilgiris through Coonoor remains a major obstruction for herds comprising calves.
“The cameras were placed for increased monitoring of elephants using the corridor. We are expecting to collect various data, including the number of herds using the corridor, the time they take to cross the road, changes in the patterns of movement and other difficulties the animals face,” said I. Anwardeen, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Coimbatore Circle.
According to the studies done by researchers in the past, the Kallar corridor is significant as it connects the Brahmagiri-Nilgiris-Eastern Ghats elephant population range with the Nilambur-Silent Valley-Coimbatore population range. The movement of elephants between the two ranges facilitates genetic exchange, dispersal and access to a variety of seasonal foraging grounds, according to researchers.
Furthermore, researchers have assessed that the corridor is the only possible transit route for large mammals to move between the forests of the Silent Valley National Park-Mannarkad-Palakkad Forest Divisions and the Nilgiri North Forest Division-Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve.
“Traffic intensity, over 8,000 vehicles per day, on the NH passing through the elephant corridor is the biggest problem. The changes in the use of private lands in the corridor... such as fallow lands developed into banana plantations and electric fencing for them, have further narrowed the elephant passage. The green tax toll booth set up on the corridor needs to be relocated to help in the smooth movement of elephants,” said D. Boominathan, landscape coordinator of WWF-India, Coimbatore.
Various Departments and stakeholders put forward a proposal for a 1.6-km flyover from the Kallar bridge to the second hairpin bend of the ghat section at a cost of ₹160 crore a few years ago. But it did not get budgetary sanction from the State government, said officials.
