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Elephants Also Like Coffee: Trends and Drivers of Human–Elephant Conflicts in Coffee Agroforestry Landscapes of Kodagu, Western Ghats, India

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A Publisher's Erratum to this article was published on 13 July 2011

Abstract

Kodagu district produces 2% of the world’s coffee, in complex, multistoried agroforestry systems. The forests of the district harbour a large population of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). The combined effects of high elephant density and major landscape changes due to the expansion of coffee cultivation are the cause of human–elephant conflicts (HEC). Mitigation strategies, including electric fences and compensation schemes implemented by the Forest Department have met with limited success. Building on previous studies in the area, we assessed current spatial and temporal trends of conflict, analysed local stakeholders’ perceptions and identified factors driving elephants into the estates. Our study, initiated in May 2007, shows that the intensity of HEC has increased over the last 10 years, exhibiting new seasonal patterns. Conflict maps and the lack of correlation between physical features of the coffee plantations and elephant visits suggest elephants move along corridors between the eastern and western forests of the district, opportunistically foraging when crossing the plantations. Dung analyses indicate elephants have selectively included ripe coffee berries in their diet. This is, to our knowledge, the first report of wild elephants feeding on coffee berries. If this new behaviour spreads through the population, it will compound an already severe conflict situation. The behavioural plasticity, the multiplicity of stakeholders involved, the difficulty in defining the problem and the limits of technical solutions already proposed suggest that HEC in Kodagu has the ingredients of a “wicked” problem whose resolution will require more shared understanding and problem solving work amongst the stakeholders.

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Acknowledgments

This paper was carried out with the financial support of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche under the Programme Agriculture et Développement Durable (ANR-06-PADD-014, POPULAR), and of the European Commission under the Program on Environment in Developing Countries project (CAFNET—Europaid/ENV/2006/114-382/TPS). We thank the Karnataka Forest Department, Tata Coffee Limited, and individual farmers for giving us necessary permissions and extending their cooperation. We thank the interviewees and field assistants for their cooperation and support during fieldwork and Pascal Douard for GIS support, Jenu Kalla for collecting and typing Forest Department records, R. Jayapalan for preparing the rainfall data and Edith Johnson for the edition of the revised manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. French Institute of Pondicherry, 11 St Louis Street, PB 33, Pondicherry, 605001, India

    P. Bal, C. D. Nath, K. M. Nanaya & C. Garcia

  2. School of Biology, Bute Building, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AS, UK

    P. Bal

  3. College of Forestry, University of Agricultural Sciences (Bangalore), Ponnampet, Kodagu District, Bangalore, 571216, Karnataka, India

    C. G. Kushalappa

  4. CIRAD, UPR Goods and Services of Tropical Forest Ecosystems, 34398, Montpellier, France

    C. Garcia

  5. CIFOR ENV Programme, P.O. Box 0113, BOCBD, Bogor, 16000, Indonesia

    C. Garcia

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  1. P. Bal
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Correspondence to C. Garcia.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9718-0

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Bal, P., Nath, C.D., Nanaya, K.M. et al. Elephants Also Like Coffee: Trends and Drivers of Human–Elephant Conflicts in Coffee Agroforestry Landscapes of Kodagu, Western Ghats, India. Environmental Management 47, 789–801 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9636-1

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