I. CASE BACKGROUND

1. Abstract

Not all disputes over land occur between two different countries or two different races, sometimes the battle rages between two different species. In the borderlands of Nepal and India both humans and elephants fight in an ever increasing conflict. As the human population swells in the area, it captures more and more territory previously controlled by the seemingly quiet and peaceful pachyderm. However, as fights in the region have shown these animals can be more dangerous than anyone may have expected. Between loss of crops, loss of homes, and loss of lives these "passive" creatures are serving up quite a resistance. Humans in the area are moving to more defensive strategies including fences, trenches, and scare tactics to keep the elephants at bay, but as long as humans continue to invade and destroy their habitats, elephants will continue to fight against extinction.

2. Description

The border region between Nepal and India has long been the home to a wide variety of plants and animals. The region in Nepal known as the Terai has supported forests where elephants have resided for thousands of years, and was maintained by Nepali kings as a buffer zone between Nepal and the Indian kingdoms to the south. The forests have also been a haven to malaria, as well as other diseases. However, the advent of pesticides and a growing population in both India and Nepal have put a great amount of strain on the region and have caused some of the larger wildlife, such as the elephant and rhinoceros, to become endangered.

The border region forests also facilitate the migration of elephants, which forage in the forests. The border region is not itself especially important to elephants for migration in comparison to many other places, but because the border region is controlled by two different governments, conservation efforts with the forests are much more complicated. Connected habitats would help to ensure that the gene pool remains diverse.(2) Asian Elephants, along with their African counterparts, are the largest land mammals on Earth, so they are very dependent on an extensive habitat. The loss of this habitat tends to affect them, as well as other large mammals, in an especially negative way.

Another major impact on the elephant population is poaching. Elephant tusks are the most prized parts of the body, though the bones and skin are also believed to have medicinal value. Thus the poaching of elephants presents a great danger to the species, along with habitat loss.<p>

In order to understand these effects on the elephant population more fully, it is necessary to look at what has happened to elephants in the past, how the elephant population has been affected by the loss of habitat, and how they have tried to compensate for this loss by feeding off crops and other food found in villages of the border region. <p>

For millennia, the people of India and Nepal have considered the elephant to be sacred. Ganesh, the son of Shiva and Parvati, two gods central to the Hindu faith, was believed to have the head of an elephant and the body of a man, representing an all-understanding being with unfathomable power. Ganesh is also the god of good luck, and is often worshipped before initiating many activities. This reverence for Ganesh and the elephants' destructive effects on the populace have caused elephants and humans to develop an almost love-hate relationship.(1) <p>

The capture of elephants has had a minor impact on their populations. Nepal, in the late 1890's, saw more than two to three hundred elephants caught annually, a number that probably reflected a much larger wild population.(3) Today, in all thirteen nations where elephants live, 1,600 are caught every year, out of a total population somewhere between 35,000 and 51,000.(3) The number of elephants in captivity has always been much smaller than that of the wild elephants.

It is believed that humans first began domesticating elephants as early as 3000 B.C.E. The mahouts (elephant handler) passed on their skills from father to son. For the most part, elephants were used for military purposes or religious festivals. Mahouts still carry on the tradition of domesticating elephants, though the tradition is no longer passed down from father to son. The methods of training elephants are varied, but are often criticized for their brutality. These traditions have by and large been improved over time, but there is a general consensus that more can and should be done to make elephant handling more humane.(6)

The border region between Nepal and India has had historical importance for the Asian elephant. The kings of Nepal, in an effort to keep kingdoms to the south from invading, maintained the forests along their southern frontier as a buffer zone. Elephants, tigers, rhinoceros, malaria, and dense thickets presented a formidable barrier to any would-be invaders. These forests were a haven for elephants and other large mammals and birds.(4) </blockquote><br><blockquote>
Loss of habitat became a big problem for elephants due to the increasing population in Nepal and India in the past century. Nepal's population growth rate was fairly constant between 1950 and 1990, rising from 2 percent to 2.6 percent annually. India's population growth rate was similar, with about a 2 percent annual growth rate during the same period. Due to the high population density in the middle hills of Nepal and the Gangetic Plains of India, people began to migrate to the Terai region, which was facilitated by the introduction of effective countermeasures against malaria. This caused more of the forest habitat for elephants to come under cultivation by farmers looking for new land to plant their crops.

Demand for food and lumber have also put increasing pressure on the forests in the border region. As the population has risen, greater and greater need for fuelwood and cropland has caused more and more forest to be converted into grasslands and fields. The forests have become discontinuous in many places, broken up by roads and cropland.(2) The vast majority of Nepalis, nearly 96% of them, are dependent upon biomass for their energy needs. Forests, such as those inhabited by elephants, present the greatest source of biomass.(5)

With the increased loss of habitat and the continuous decrease in forest cover, the elephants are relying more and more on human crops for food. This has led to increased confrontations between farmers and elephants resulting in fatalities for both the elephants and the humans.

The farmers and villagers attempt to drive away rampaging elephants from their crops. In doing so they have used many methods to try and keep the elephants from eating their food and destroying their villages as they search for food and water. Methods that farmers in the region have tried include: fences, ditches, scaring techniques, early warning systems, and the development and fine tuning of new techniques such as chemical repellants, pheromones, strobe lights, and infrasound. (4)

The elephants have caused widespread damage. Elephants have destroyed crops before they could be harvested, both by eating the crops and by trampling the fields. Over the past few years, the amount of damage has averaged in the millions of dollars. The crops are not the only things destroyed, because elephants are drawn into villages by the scent of food and end up trampling the houses, property and people.(2) <p>

Though the elephants are fighting back, they seem to be losing the battle. Estimates of the wild elephant population have not been available until relatively recently. The first estimate was taken in 1938 for Uttar Pradesh and put the maximum number of elephants in the state at 250. Estimates for the number of elephants in northern India in the year 2000 were less than 1000, while in Nepal the number was less than 60. (4)

Poaching in the border region between Nepal and India has also contributed to the decline of the elephant population. There has been a history of a high demand for Asian elephant ivory, which has always been more highly prized in the global marketplace than that of African elephants.(4) Elephant tusks and organs are prized throughout Asia and the Middle East because of the belief that they have medicinal values. Some experts link the growth in traditional Asian medicine with the continued poaching of Asian elephants.(13) Early elephant hunting would usually only kill one or two elephants, but the hunters would kill the older males. This left the younger elephants orphaned. Today, modern poachers have better weapons and usually kill the entire family of elephants at one time. (7) In 1996 there where 91 reports of poaching in India, followed by 102 in 1997. (8) Unfortunately, data concerning the poaching levels of elephants are spotty at best, so this could be merely a year to year fluctuation.

<p>Asian elephants do have an important role to play in commerce for the region, especially for tourism. The elephants are caught from the wild because breeding in captivity is virtually impossible for Asian elephants. They are then trained and become domesticated, so they can be used to give rides through the forest for tourists to view the area's flora and fauna. (6)

Elephants are used in commerce for more than just tourism; they are also used in the logging industry. The elephants are used to drag trees from the forest to the trucks for loading or all the way to the river dock for loading for exportation. Elephants are used to pull tree trunks out of the ground after the bulk of the tree has been removed. Thus, elephants are being used to destroy their own habitat. As the logging companies progress further through the forest, more and more of the elephant's habitat is disappearing. (6)

Elephants are used by the villagers to occasionally help with agriculture, especially in plowing the fields and transporting goods to market. The elephants in the tourism, logging and agriculture business are often overworked. Due to the fatigue of these animals, more elephants must be captured from the wild to replace the ones previously used. Because of this exploitative process, the domestication of elephants is becoming a larger concern as a cause of declining population. What's worse is the elephants captured and put to work have yet to produce offspring, thus every elephant captured is the last in its bloodline.(4)

These destructive trends have not gone unnoticed, however. The governments of India and Nepal, with some outside assistance, have attempted to preserve what is left of some of the elephants' natural habitat. Perhaps most important to the survival of the species is for the elephants to have a continuous protected zone which can be used as a migratory route. With support from the World Wildlife Fund, the governments of both countries have discussed plans for making reserved forests in each country connect to each other at the border. This would allow a relatively safe passage for migrating elephants.(2)

Anti-poaching squads have had some effect as well. Ironically enough, domesticated elephants are often used as vehicles for anti-poaching patrols. In a sense, elephants are continuing to help defend their own habitat. However, the conflict currently going on in Nepal between Maoist rebels and the government has had some negative effects on the ability of anti-poaching squads to patrol the forests. Forest patrolmen are often diverted from their regular duty to serve with the national military to root out Maoists, leaving more forest unwatched. The Maoists have also been known to poach rhinoceros for their horns. It is not clear, though, if the same is being done to elephants.(12) Due to the vast expanse of the elephants' range in migration, the cooperation between the governments of Nepal and India will be an important factor in determining the continued existence of the Asian elephant.

3. Duration: 3,00 bc to now

The conflict between elephants and the people of the India-Nepal border region has existed for many thousands of years. The practice of domesticating the elephants began as early as 3000 B.C., but of course man and elephant would have interacted long before that. The seriousness of the conflict did not escalate severely until the populations of Nepal and India began to grow and the international climate between to the two countries improved. This warming of relations was enough to allow loggers to begin to cut down the forests of the Terai which had been kept intact by Nepali kings for centuries for the purpose of protecting against invasion from the south. Malaria had also been a problem, but with the advent of pesticides such as DDT, this problem was sufficiently mitigated as to allow vast amounts of the forest to be removed. This occurred between 1947 and 1967, during which time huge population growth took place in India(1) and trees were cut in large numbers. This can also be identified as the true start of the conflict between elephants and humans. The struggle is ongoing, as more and more elephants die each year, along with hundreds of Nepalis and Indians living in villages close to the remaining forests.

4. Location

a. Continent: Asia
b. Region: South Asia
c. Countries: 2, Nepal and India

5. Actors

Source: Habitat loss, poaching
As with any large animal, elephants are very dependent on large amounts of habitat to maintain a viable population. Elephants need approximately 200 kg of forage and slightly less than 240 liters of water a day to survive.(2) This makes them especially sensitive to the loss of their habitat. Bull elephants require nearly 200 km^2 of land to survive, making it perhaps the most habitat demanding of all land mammals. Female elephants, in stark contrast to their male counterparts, can live at a density of five elephants per square kilometer, though this can only occur in grassland-forest mosaics. It is also very difficult to get elephants to breed in captivity, so natural habitat may be critical to keep elephants from becoming extinct.
Poaching is also a significant problem for the elephant population, but since female Asian elephants do not grow tusks they are much less attractive to poachers than their African counterparts. Females are still poached, along with males, for the perceived medicinal uses of their bones.(2)

Sink:
The loss of habitat has forced elephants to look for other, less conventional ways of finding enough food to feed themselves. This has led to herds traveling into villages in search of food, causing the destruction of homes and loss of life. This in turn causes the villagers to act against the elephants, often in lethal ways to protect their property and lives. <P>
This increased contact with villagers and poachers means that the survival of the species is in jeopardy, and so the number of elephants continues to dwindle. These elephants are already an endangered species, thus making the situation all the more dire.

II. Environment Aspects

6. Type of Environmental Problem

7. Type of Habitat

Tropical:
This is mostly tropical forest that is rich in biodiversity. The forests themselves provide habitat not just for elephants, but many other endangered species, such as the one-horned rhino and tigers. The overall status of the habitat is considered degraded in the sense that there is much more that can be done to ensure its adequate preservation.(12)</

8. Act and Harm Sites:

Site of Act	Site of Harm	Example
India/Nepal Border	India/Nepal Border	Elephants destroy crops and villages
India/Nepal Border	Commons	Loss of habitat and animals

III. Conflict Aspects

9. Type of Conflict: Civil

10. Level of Conflict: Low

11. Fatality Level of Dispute (military and civilian fatalities)

IV. Environment and Conflict Overlap

12. Environment-Conflict Link and Dynamics: Direct

13. Level of Strategic Interest: Regional

14. Outcome of Dispute: In Progress

V. Related Information and Sources

15. Related ICE and TED Cases

ELEPHBOT

CAMPFIRE

ELEPHANT

RHINO

IVORY

SANDALWD

ZAMBIA

TIGERIND

IVORY2

Kenya

PERECUAD

HIMALAY

CHIPKO

RHINOBLK

16. Relevant Literature and Websites

1. Narain, A. K., "Ganesa: A Protohistory of the Idea and the Icon" Ganesh, edited by Robert L. Brown. Sri Satguru Publications. 1997.

2. Rai, Usha, "A Reprieve for Wildlife on Indo-Nepal Border" Feature article on the WWF India website. August 30, 2001. Available online at: http://www.wwfindia.org/jsp/jsp/News2.jsp?code=32&limit=15

3. Gautam, Krishna Hari, Indigenous Forest Management Systems in the Hills of Nepal, Unpublished thesis submitted to the Australian National University, Canberra, Dec. 1991

4. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Asian Elephant Conservation Act: Summary Report 1999-2001, Winter 2002

5. Manandhar, Anita, Solar Cookers as a Means for Reducing Deforestation in Nepal, Centre for Rural Technology in Nepal, Sept. 26, 2002 Available online at: http://www.panasia.org.sg/nepalnet/crt/Report.html

6. Hart, Lynette and Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, Between the Species, Aug. 2002, Available at: http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jlynch/Hart.html

7. Youngman, Jeremy, Elephants and Ivory, Copyright Jeremy Young 2000. Available online at http://www.ivorytrade.com/jsy/

8. Menon, V. and Kumar, A. Signed and Sealed: The Fate of the Asian Elephant Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre. 1998 Available online at: http://www.wpsi-india.org/reports/signed/00cover.htm

9. "Nepal's Anti-poaching Squads Successful", Environment News Service, Oct. 22, 1998, Available online at: http://forests.org/archive/asia/antisqua.htm

10. Helle, Knut-Erik, "Facts on the Nature of Nepal" 2003, Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists and Future in our Hands, available online at: www.deepeco.net/nepal/archives/00000010.htm

11. Kharel, S., "Wildlife Corridor Mapping Between Royal Bardiya National Park, Nepal and Katarniyaghat Wildlife Reserve, India by Using GIS" WTLC, 2002. Nepal Biodiversity Landscape Project; HMG/MFSC/UNDP/SNV/WWF, Kathmandu.

12. Hussain, Syed Zarir, "Indian Soldiers Bust Poaching Syndicate at Kaziranga" Indo-Asian News Service Sun., 27 Oct. 2002, available online at: http://www.indialists.org/pipermail/wildlife-india/2002-October/000114.html

16. Relevant Websites and Literature