Bhubaneswar, India - Chandaka Forest and Elephant Sanctuary

Bhubaneswar, India - Chandaka Forest and Elephant Sanctuary contains nearly 180 sq kms, yet has only 5 remaining wild elephants. Most recently, with human caused elephant deaths, only one elephant is thought remaining. This number has dropped precipitously since 1992, when there were over 80.

Bhubaneswar is growing without a master plan, and little consideration for the planet. Gated communities, large institutes, including over 100 engineering colleges and various industries are pressing into Chandaka Elephant Sanctuary. The sanctuary was originally created as a buffer against human encroachment, and the founders were profoundly aware that borders needed setting up to provide natural reprieve from a future run-amok urbane area.

Bhubaneswar is out of control. leaving elephants trapped permanently inside the forest and sanctuary...except for one possibility - narrow, thread-like corridors that were recently identified. Please see attached map.

Odisha government must honor the importance of the original purpose of the Sanctuaries' founding and stop encroachment. There is a natural corridor that connects Chandaka with wild areas to the south. "A herd of elephants from across the Mahanadi came to Chandaka––and went back again after a short stay, proving that old corridors linking Chandaka to the gene pool of the Mahanadi Elephant Reserve––which also includes the Satkosia Tiger Reserve––through the Athgarh and to the Kapilas Hills." (1)

"The Odisha government officially identified 14 elephant corridors in January 2010, covering over 870 sq. km and including three inter-state corridors – with West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The state spent Rs 20 crore to improve these corridors. However, these paths are not protected by law, Biswajit Mohanty, the secretary of the Wildlife Society of Odisha (WSO)." (2)

We must do more to save and reestablish elephant corridors, including this one out of Chandana!

More about the herds of Chandana, via Prerna Singh Bindra, published in "The Pioneer," with inputs from Aditya Panda [this is an example of abject failure of wildlife management]:

"The elephants had nowhere to go –– they got little sanctuary in Chandaka. Overgrazed by cattle and exploited for firewood, the habitat itself was turning increasingly unsuitable, even hostile. Villagers had encroached, and when the elephants raided their fields, they were riddled with shotgun pellets. Wounded, over time some elephants died a slow, painful death. In 2002-3, a herd of over 20 elephants migrated out of Chandaka in a southerly direction –– a route never in history known to be used by them. They crossed the busy four-lane NH-5 just outside Bhubaneswar and made for Barunei Hill, moving onwards, traversing villages, cultivation, the Tangi-Ranpur ‘Mal’ forests and into the relatively well protected Barbara reserve forest –– traditionally not known to harbour elephants. When Chandaka deteriorated further, especially post 2006, more herds followed. The desperate, bewildered elephants were on the run, hounded by mobs, harassed by terrified villagers… seeking refuge. Some reached Chilika, a few fell on the wayside, succumbing to sheer exhaustion."

"Reportedly, only about 20 of the original 85-odd elephants now survive in Chandaka [since this was written, the numbers dropped to 5, and now only one remaining]. The ‘emigrants’ are now constantly on the run ––from one conflict situation to another, across southern-coastal Orissa, where neither can the forests support them, nor are the farmers used to elephants. Conflict has intensified to such an extent in southern-coastal Orissa now, that the state forest department has deployed almost its entire force of captive elephants as ‘kunkis’ in the region to contain the conflict."