Elephants of Deivamalai in Gudalur, Tamil Nadu, have stunned environmentalists, forest staff and conservationists with their intelligence, ingenuity and problem-solving skills. They have repeatedly broken into a dump yard, earlier believed to be “elephant proof,” to gain access to the vegetable waste inside.
Those who have seen visuals of the elephants making their way into the dump yard are amazed by their perseverance in gaining entry to the four-acre land where the Gudalur Municipality’s waste is dumped. Speaking to The Hindu, H. Madhusudanam, a local conservationist who played an important role in getting a solar fence installed at the yard, said more than 20 elephants visited the dump yard every day at the beginning of last year.
“Conservationists and the municipality soon came up with a solution by fixing ‘tentacles’ or outward protrusions on the solar-fence. The tentacles from the main fence would send out a minor shock, and discourage the animals from getting within a few feet of the fence,” said Mr. Madhusudanam. The new measures initially seemed to work, with most of the female elephants and calves moving away to the surrounding forests in search of food.
However, the pachyderms soon found a way around this problem, with four male elephants in particular figuring out the weakest links around the security system.
They began targeting the front entrance. Videos show one elephant using his tusk for extra reach, while keeping the more sensitive portion of his trunk coiled around his head. The cameras at the yard capture the footage of a male elephant using his tusks to deftly reach over the “tentacles,” and snap the solar fencing using his tusks, thereby creating an opening. The elephant does not seem to feel a major shock when using his tusks to snap the fence.
The animals, after managing to breach the defences on numerous occasions, began demolishing the rest of the fence from inside, as there were no problems once they were inside the yard.
Since August 2016, onceagain the elephants began feeding on the vegetable waste in the facility. Elephant dung at the site shows that the animals are ingesting plastic, along with vegetable waste, heightening concerns of a grave health risk. The Gudalur Municipality is once again getting the help of conservationists to build a fence around the yard, with a “three-tier security system.”
The Gudalur Division of the Nilgiris Forest Department, meanwhile, has called for the dump yard to be shifted, citing concerns that the endangered animals and people, are at risk from the health hazards arising from the waste dumped there.