NGOs buy land to protect wildlife corridors

Two non-profit organisations, involved in wildlife protection "" Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and its foreign partner International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) "" have signed an agreement with the Karnataka government to transfer land they bought from farmers and villagers to safeguard a wildlife corridor.

The corridors are narrow strips of land that the wild animals use to move from one habitat to another as part of their seasonal migration. Blocking of these migratory paths has led to wild animals straying into villages and causing panic and depredation.

Under the agreement, the track known as the Edayargalli-Doddasampige (E-D) corridor is being transferred to the Karnataka Forest Department which, under the part of the deal, will maintain the corridor as a safe passage for elephants. The corridor, part of the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, links the Wayanad Sanctuary with the Brahmagiri Sanctuary.

The E-D corridor is a narrow strip (0.5 km wide and 2 km long) of land crucial to the local elephant population as it links two forest areas cut off from each other by deforestation and agricultural activity.

A highway (linking the Kollegal-Sathyamangalam) also runs through the corridor connecting the human settlement, which threatens the ability of elephants to move safely between the protected areas for foraging and breeding.

The agreement with the forest department brings the corridor officially into the existing Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, thereby improving the ability of forest guards to protect the strip of land. The land was privately purchased by IFAW in 2005 to ensure that a viable habitat was protected for future development.

This is the first instance in the country when such an agreement was being signed. It represents a trend in which non-profit wildlife organisations do not wait for the government to act but take the initiative and put their money where their heart is.

Speaking after signing the MoU, Fred O'Regan, president of IFAW said, "This ground-breaking initiative aims to give privately-owned land back to the government who are best-placed to enforce the existing conservation laws. The E-D corridor in Karnataka is also home to wild tigers and leopards, so by protecting the habitat of elephants we are also able to provide safe passage for other endangered species and wildlife in the area."

"Land for this was acquired from villagers through direct payment, providing suitable alternative land and also with rehabilitation packages. Four families have already been voluntarily relocated from Thirulakunnu village," said O'Reagan.

Thirulakunnu is one of six settlements in the Tirunelli-Kudrakote corridor that connects the Brahmagiri hills of Karnataka to the Coorg plateau through the Waynad region of Kerala. This provides connectivity to a population of at least 5,000 elephants.

According to trust's advisor K N Changappa, "Such intervention is required as the country is home to an estimated 25,000 wild elephants and there are 88 identified elephant corridors. In Karnataka, the trust has identified six elephant corridors "" the Karadikkal-Madeswara range, Tali, E-D, Chamarajnagar-Talamalai at Punajur, Chamarajnagar-Talamalai at Muddahalli and Kaniyanpura-Moyar ranges."

Through a similar exercise, WTI and IFAW has acquired and handed over land that has been identified as an elephant corridor linking the Wayanad Sanctuary to the Brahmagiri Sanctuary. The forest land is threatened by human settlement.

An agreement with the government will be signed in due course.