Elephants migrate to ‘de-stress’

Express News Service
07 May 2009

BHUBANESWAR: Heatwave could be a challenge for wildlife managers with depleting water sources in reserve forests, but the elephants of the Chandaka Dampara Sanctuary (CDS), for the first time, have used a traditional corridor to ‘destress’ themselves in a natural way.

Sounds strange? But it happened recently at CDS as a herd of 10 elephants has crossed the river Mahanadi and explored new water sources in Athgarh Forest Division.

Usually the corridor is used by elephants in winter to cross the sanctuary and from the point of elephant management the movement in the traditional corridors is a healthy sign.

Though DFO Akshaya Patnaik feels that there could not be any scientific link between heatwave and this movement, it could be an ‘‘instinctive learning process by the elephants and use of that acquired knowledge to cope with summer heat.’’ In fact, forests across the State had many incidents of fire this summer and also the data provided by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) corroborates this. But after the forest fire, the heatwave conditions have created more challenging situation for the wildlife officials.

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