CONSERVING A COMPACT EVERGREEN ELEPHANT HABITAT: A SURVEY OF THE POPULATION STATUS AND CONSERVATION OF ASIAN ELEPHANT IN KALAKAD-MUNDANTHURAI TIGER RESERVE, SOUTHERN INDIA

摘要

The Agasthyamalai sub-region, located in the Western Ghats of southern India, is known for its large contiguous habitat with tropical evergreen, semi-evergreen, mixed deciduous, grasslands and dry forests (Sukumar, 1989). This large, contiguous forest tract, starting from south of Ariankavu Pass, to the southern-most tip of Western Ghats, Mahendragiri (covering an area of 2,000 km~2) is one of the crucial habitats for elephants and the Kalakadu-Mundanthuri Tiger Reserve (KMTR) is a part of this contiguous forest complex (Kant, 1994). The vegetation type is dominated by evergreen forest and it is the last remaining compact evergreen forest elephant habitat in southern India. This compact evergreen elephant habitat, and the little explored KMTR, are known to support 100 to 150 elephants (Dutt, 2001; Melkani, 2001). The current survey was carried out to document the elephant distribution pattern, human-elephant conflicts and other conservation issues of the Asian elephant in KMTR.