Food &Water for 500 Distraught Elephants- Phase II

I've just returned after 45 days from one of the most productive trips to India where we launched several projects across multiple states.

In Odisha (check out all the images):

1. VFAES and Paribartan officially launched the plantation of elephant-friendly saplings, which will be planted in the Balasore region
2. We ventured deep inside the Malyagiri forests where our team has identified locations to create embankments and store water for elephants during the harsh summer months
3. I joined our former partner, WPSI to visit some of the dangerous abandoned and open wells that we have now barricaded
4. I also checked out elephant crossing signage and the laser device that are helping save elephants in core elephant crossing zones

Click on the titles below to read the amazing media coverage:

• Plantation in two wildlife corridors - in The New Indian Express (one of the three most popular dailies in India)
• Initiative to Avoid Human Elephant Conflict - News Lead India
• Elephants Ecologically Indispensable - Odisha Post

In West Bengal:

1. We inaugurated the EleSense officially, flanked by the railway and forest authorities
2. And then of course we initiated the 3rd phase of elephant friendly fencing near the Gorumara Forests
3. I visited two other villages - Panijhora and Nepali Busti - where we'd launched the first two phases
4. Our team and I distributed flashlights, with the support of tea plantation managers and owners, so the elephants will be alerted by the flashlight and humans can see the elephants. Most tea plantation workers return home after the dusk settles, and there's no proper lighting. So elephants and people run into each other and you can guess the rest...

Since the launch of EleSense in mid-January in West Bengal, the project continues to make news headlines. Many of you so generous funded our EleSense project - sensor based device designed to save elephants from getting killed by the reckless speeding trains. We've installed 40 pairs of the EleSense across key elephant crossing zones and we've already been able to detect elephants criss-crossing the area around 68 times (maps attached). Click on the titles below to the significant media coverage in West Bengal:

• Mitigating man-animal-conflict - The Hindu (one of the 3 most popular dailies in India)
• CLICK HERE to read the news coverage on News9 Live
• Media Role in Saving Elephants - The Statesman

The elephants of India still need a lot of help, because in an unfortunate turn of events, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change amended India's Wildlife Protection Act (1972), legalizing captive elephant transfers for "religious and other purposes", opening up the pandora box of the nasties. The issue is, there's no mechanism to keep track of elephants currently in captivity and the ones that are being illegally captured. As a matter of fact, this amendment to the WPA embodens illegal captures of wild elephants.

So,we still have a lot of work to do, if we are to save the endangered Asian elephants. India is their last bastion because it houses 60% of all Asian elephants. Please continue to support this very critical projects to save these ecologically significant animals by helping us plant saplings for the famished elephants and create waterbodies for them. 

CLICK HERE TO DONATE FROM YOUR HEART!

On behalf of all the elephants of India, and our Board of Directors, my most sincere gratitude for your support. Only collectively can we save the endangered Asian elephants. Let's work together to save these majestic animals!!

Sincerely,
Sangita

Links:

• Plantation in Two Wildlife Corridors
• Large Scale Plantation to Avoid Human-Elephant-Conflict
• Elephants Ecologically Indispensible