Killing Gajah: On the killing of an elephant in Kerala
June
5, 2020
A culture of exploitation
led to the painful death of an elephant in Kerala
An OUTPOURING of grief has
followed the death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala, the treacherous use of a
food bomb causing widespread REVULSION and anger. Scores of elephants are
killed every year in India as their paths cross those of humans, but the image
of a mortally wounded animal standing impassively in a river in Palakkad as
life ebbed out of it will remain imprinted on the mind. Whether the
booby-trapped pineapple that took its life was intended for elephants or other
animals matters little, because such traps litter the troubled landscapes that
surround forests across the country. The tragic fate that BEFELL this creature,
however, is a GHASTLY reminder of the rising conflicts between humans and
animals that are only destined to grow, as commercial pressures eat into
already diminished habitat. The PERPETRATORS may be prosecuted for the
elephant’s death, but that can do little to MITIGATE the larger issue of lost
ranges and blocked corridors for these wandering giants. India has thousands of
elephants — just under 30,000 according to available counts — but no strong
science-IMBUED policy that encourages soft landscapes and migrating passages
that will reduce conflict. Ironically, Union Environment Minister Prakash
Javadekar invoked Indian culture to deplore what happened in Kerala, but it is
the lack of a scientific culture and the readiness to spare forested lands from
commercial exploitation that is EVISCERATING nature. Even during the lockdown
in April, the Ministry convened video conference meetings of the National Board
for Wildlife and the Expert Appraisal Committee to clear disruptive projects in
protected areas.
Shrinking ranges and feeding
grounds for elephants cause serious worry, because the animals look for soft
landscapes adjoining forests such as coffee, tea and cardamom estates, and in
the absence of these, wander into food-rich farms falling in their movement
pathways. Research in Karnataka showed that 60% of elephant distribution was
encountered outside protected areas. In Kerala, such movement along
human-dominated landscapes routinely produces conflict. Unsurprisingly,
politicians of many hues in the State were opposed to the Madhav Gadgil
Committee Report calling for the entire Western Ghats to be classified as
ecologically sensitive and spared of destructive development. With such
fundamental philosophical disagreement, and a vision of VERDANT landscapes as
nothing more than a resource to be exploited for minerals and cash crops,
elephants and other creatures have little chance of escaping deadly conflict. A
sensible course open to conservation-minded governments is to end all INTRUSION
into the 5% of protected habitat in India, and draw up better compensation
schemes for farmers who lose crops to animals. A culture shift to protect, rather
than prospect, would genuinely enrich people and save biodiversity.
Important Vocabs:-
1.OUTPOURING(बहाव, उंडेलना):-deluge, discharge, outrush, outflowing
2.REVULSION:-a strong,
often sudden, feeling that something is extremely unpleasant:
3.BEFELL:(especially of
something bad) happen to (someone).
4.GHASTLY:extremely
unwell.
5.PERPETRATORS(अपराधियों):a person who carries out a harmful,
illegal, or immoral act.
6.IMBUED:inspire or
permeate with (a feeling or quality): inspire, inculcate,charge,saturate
7.MITIGATE:Reduce,diminish
8.EVISCERATING:less
effective or powerful//deprive (something) of its essential content.
9.VERDANT:बहुत
बढ़िया, हरा à¤à¤°ा, ताजा, Greenish: grassy, grass-covered, lush,rich,
flourishing
