Odisha: The Vanishing Elephant Corridors of Chandaka Sanctuary

For how long will we go on misleading ourselves with routine celebrations, such as the World Wildlife Day, which was commemorated on March 3, 2024.

Token celebrations, such as bringing a few elephants from the zoo or from other captive enclosures and offering them bananas and coconuts, painting their heads with vermillion have become a ritual. Then, it’s back to business as usual, allowing an unending trail of man and animal conflict, with wild elephants struggling to protect themselves or dying.

“Elephants being the largest terrestrial mammals require large areas, and hence, are usually one of the first species to suffer the consequences of habitat fragmentation and destruction. The Elephant Reserves (ER) offer hope to rejuvenate some of the fragmented habitats but inside that also, the death drama goes on”, says Biswajit Mohanty, a well-known environmental activist and president of the Wildlife Society of Odisha (WSO).

In Odisha, where many forest habitats are shared by tigers and elephants, the establishments of ERs have raised the hope to unify fragmented tiger habitats as well. But is this really happening?
Three Elephant Reserves --Mayurbhanj ER, Mahanadi ER and Sambalpur ER -- have been notified by the Odisha government for conservation of prime elephant habitats and launching various management interventions.

The extent of notified and proposed forest blocks in these three reserves is 4,129 sq. km, and the total geographical area covered by the three reserves is 8,509 sq. km.

In order to (a) include most of the remaining important elephant habitats within ERs, (b) redress the problem of rising number of cases of elephant depredation and (c) reverse the trend of habitat fragmentation and degradation, it is proposed to expand the area of Mahanadi and Sambalpur ERs, and constitute two new ERs called the Brahmani-Baitarani ER and the South Odisha ER.

After declaration, the forest area encompassed within ERs will be about 25% of the total forest area of the state; and about 90% of the elephants will be within these ERs.

Chandaka—A Tale of Despair

When we celebrate nature and its inmates as a family on earth, it should be inclusive of all that we live with, for man alone cannot continue to exist.  

Let’s take a look at the Chandaka Elephant Sanctuary, barely 20 km from Odisha’s capital, Bhubaneswar, which is now a harrowing combo of concrete monstrosity and rapid urbanisation.

Accordingly, the geographic surroundings and the characteristics of Chandaka Elephant Sanctuary have also seen rapid changes.

The sanctuary’s history can be traced to 1982 but this splendid forest was then more known as the abode of big cats like tigers and leopards. The last tiger of this spectacular habitat breathed its last in 1967.

However, after the declaration of the area as the Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary, there was a shift in focus and the entire official concentration was on elephants. It was then home to 72 wild elephants in 175.79 sq km area of the sanctuary limits.

For quite some time, the Chandaka Sanctuary was known for its isolation and virginity with sufficient forest, water bodies, aquifers and all that was required for a majestic animal like the elephant.

Dark Underbelly?

“The Chandaka WLS (Wildlife Sanctuary) is surrounded by urban development. BBSR city has expanded and is almost touching the sanctuary. The Bharatpur Sanctuary (20 sq.km) is a part of Chandaka WLS and is completely ringed by apartments, office complexes and there is a busy road on one side. A part of it has been diverted for the parallel road to the Nandankanan Jaydev Vihar square, almost inside the capital city,” rued Mohanty.

“There is absolutely no breathing space for the sanctuary and the WLS is clearly under pressure and does not have a good future” Mohanty told this writer.

A sanctuary surrounded by highways and high-rise apartments and factories cannot be a safe haven for wildlife and elephants, since they cannot move an inch out of the protected area.

Although there is no official ranking for ERs, the Chandaka WLS ranks at 55 among 79 such habitats for wild elephants in India.

Even the ESA (eco sensitive area) zone, which should have been not used for any wildlife disturbing activity, is now full of development activity.

Chandaka, which was declared as ESA of a few km that was notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, a few years ago, should not have had any new development, like quarries, factories or large housing complexes. But there is little enforcement, which has affected the status of Chandaka.

Elephants have been traditionally moving out from the sanctuary to adjoining forests of Athagarh by crossing the Mahanadi River at various points. However, in the past (about 15 years ago), their migratory routes were not disrupted or diverted for development.

Toward the Mahanadi side of Chandaka, there is the busy Trishulia-Banki road which was expanded about 10 years ago. This sees a lot of traffic, which is a big impediment for elephant migration. The river side, which was barren earlier, is now full of farms and construction activity.

“In the future, this area will be developed by builders and new apartment complexes may come up. This shall completely cut off the migration route”, adds Mohanty.

Another impediment is that elephants don’t have a safe and undisturbed sojourn in the alternate habitat of Sukasani RF and Ghantikhal RF(Reserve Forrest) of Athgarh area.

“These forests are now fragmented by Arati Steel and JK Cement and at least two-three more large industrial units that are right inside their habitat. Odisha forest department has given clearance to such units despite being aware that this would lead to increase in man-animal conflict. At night, the enormous illumination from these factories lights up the surrounding forests up to 2–3 km, which stresses out elephants”, said the environmentalist.

To top it, there are rumours galore that a powerful builder lobby is pressuring the state government to denotify the sanctuary, which would free up an area of almost 180 sq.km for urban development, says Mohanty.

Vanishing Elephant Corridors

The Odisha government had identified and decided to notify 14 major elephant corridors in the state. This was done in 2012 in a meeting presided over by the Chief Minister. The state forest department spent Rs 20 crore on protection and improvement of 14 corridors over a period of five years.

However, in 2021, they decided not to notify corridors on the ground that these were not necessary, which is wrong, says Mohanty. Everyone knows elephants need and use corridors for migration which are well marked and exist for hundreds of years.

The reason behind this U-turn on the corridors is alleged to be a powerful mining mafia which pressured the government not to notify it since they would never get clearance for mining /quarrying inside the corridor land or even within 1 km from the border of the corridor, it is alleged.

“A case was filed by WSO (Wildlife Society of Odisha) in 2016 in NGT (National Green Tribunal) demanding notification of the corridors. The final orders were passed by NGT in 2021 for notification. Then the state government got a stay order on the NGT order from the Orissa High Court in February 2023, which continues till date”, Mohanty, who heads WSO, told NewsClick.

‘Filling Gold in a Decaying Mouth’

Once with a population of 72 elephants, the Chandaka Sanctuary now has less than even five elephants, according to sources.

Of course, within the Chandaka Sanctuary, there are number of recreational activities, like guest houses, rest sheds and some very good watchtowers from where elephant sightings can be done.

But, a sanctuary is not meant for only staying over and food. What’s the point if elephants are not around.

Sadly, all the measures taken by the administration, spending crores of rupees, are like gold fillings in the decaying mouth of the Chandaka Sanctuary, which faces an irreversible state of perish.

The writer is an independent journalist. The views are personal.