A day in the life of Hatigarh

Assam’s Udalguri district, administered by Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), is on the foothills of the Bhutan hills and forms a part of India’s border with Bhutan. Over the past decade, we have watched a steady rise in reports of human elephant conflict (HEC) in the area. As many as 26 human deaths have been recorded in this area between 2015 and 2017, and at least 21 cases of injury. In a five year period leading up to 2015, 87 elephants were reportedly killed by human action. We visited Kalaigaon and Hatigarh Tea Estate on July 29, 2018 to explore what we could do to help.

Hatigarh is of particular significance to the history of elephants in Assam, as its name indicates. When translated, Hatigarh literally means a fort or a rampart (garh) for confining elelphants (hati). During the reign of Ahom king Suklingphaa (1795–1811 AD), this area was adjacent to Jorhat, an emerging metropolis in the kingdom. A village 6 miles east of Jorhat became the designated site to capture wild elephants. 120 elephants were captured, and the village came to be known as Hatigarh. This points to the presence of a large indigenous elephant population in the area much before humans encroached it. With the Treaty of Yandaboo in 1826, the British cleared the jungles in the area to establish tea gardens. The first tea here was planted by Tea and Land Company (India) Ltd, the tea estate christened Hattigor, and was later acquired by Tata Tea. During the Indo-China war in 1962, Hatigarh served as the resting camp for the Indian military force; this site continues to house the Army Brigade Headquarters of the Red Horns Division.

Once a green haven, this area has seen rapid deforestation and redevelopment for housing, timber trading and tea plantations

At Elrhino Foundation, we have a special bond with the area as the founding trustees spent their childhood in forest camps along the Indo-Bhutan border, accompanying their father Prabhakar Barua, a prominent forest official, on his tours. They recall these areas being dense, green and abundantly full of wildlife. Armed with this fantastic lesson in history and geography, and with a healthy dose of nostalgia, we ventured out to Hatigarh to see how the area had transformed. Ironically, the very few old trees that survive today are within tea garden property.

What we saw in Hatigarh, was a deep and inalienable connection between the elephants and the land. Being at the foothills of Bhutan’s challenging mountains, this is an important elephant corridor. Elephants are known to have historic memories — they have not severed their ties with the area, despite consistent human efforts to compel them to do so. They migrate here to give birth to their calves, as the terrain is flat and more conducive to the calves’ survival than the mountains. This, coupled with wide scale loss of habitat cover, has resulted in wild elephants coming into tea gardens and cultivation areas searching for food.

Once inside the tea gardens, elephants like to head towards large patches of very tall Guatemala. These groves provide a safe haven to birthing and lactating elephant mothers, allow them space to rest and are resting places for the more vulnerable members of the elephant herds.

Guatemala (Tripsacum laxum Nash) grows up to 14 feet high. Considered high in nutrition, it is used widely across Africa as fodder. In tea plantations, rehabilitation of the soil is achieved by planting Guatemala grass in groves at regular intervals, which is sustained for at least two years.

Visually, we were met with unending testimonies of human elephant conflict and encountered several stories of tragedy as recalled by the local community, several of which go unreported. The most poignant symbol of this conflict is the electrified fences of Hatigarh Tea Eastate. This form of territorial assertion by humans by using electrified fences started as an institutional mechanism in Hatigarh, led by the tea garden administration. Soon, it was adapted by the local community and is now an indiscriminate and omnipresent player in the story of conflict. Worldwide, using electrified fences to control animal movement is not unknown, but is led by significant prescriptions. To quote an article, “The voltage of an electric fence should vary from about 2000 to about 10,000 volts. A 10,000 volt output is the maximum voltage allowed by international regulations. The voltage that is used depends on the desired power of the shock and the distance on the fence that can be shocked up to. For a longer shocking distance range, a lower voltage would be used”

In the case of Hattigor TE, none of this restraint is visible. The length of the electric fences are unending — they are around the entire periphery of the tea garden. The electric fencing is also accompanied by parallel seemingly lethal hooked barbed wire fencing.

In several places along the fencing, we see electric boxes with open ended wires jutting out. To any casual observer, these fences are designed to damage, not just deter.

The local communities of tea garden workers, having taken a cue from their employers, have taken to drawing high tension electric lines and leaving them exposed along elephant paths. Everywhere we went, we saw villages, hamlets, even individual homes, fenced with electrified fences or at least bearing the appearance of being so. It goes without saying that these fences are unrestricted and work without scientific guidelines or constraints, with devastating results.

One can tell an electrified fence in Hatigarh by characteristic white pieces of cloth tied to the wire, that have come to represent a warning sign to elephants — they say, “Caution, Do Not Enter”.

There have been multiple reports of elephant injuries caused by this, and at least one unreported death. There are other fronts on which this battle is being waged. Villagers dig traps for them. There are no organized field organisations working on the ground to sensitise or equip the community. Most of this takes place during the monsoons, when the elephants migrate.

Elephants routinely raid granaries and destroy property in search of food, being as they are in what was once their feeding ground

A wild tusker aged 15 years was killed on the night of June 4, 2018. Locals report seeing the tusker approach a jack fruit tree near the Hattigor Tea Estate factory house at 8.15 pm on June 4 and being killed instantaneously, following its contact with a loosely hanging electric wire.

In the immediate vicinity of the tea garden, the Army has taken several proactive measures to manage this situation. While elephant visits are routine there too, their entire cadre and community are sensitized and trained to avoid confrontation or aggravation, and the reports of damage are negligible vis-a-vis their civilian counterparts. They are also actively seeking measures to divert the elephants by strategically creating some food stations, water points and other similar tactical solutions. While this might be an over simplification, the lesson we took home is that there is a great deal that policy, community guidelines and sensitization can do mitigate the rampant conflict that Hatigarh witnesses. Interestingly, they have committed leaders who are seeking ways to engage with the local community and contribute to the mitigation process.

It is important to note that we did not have the opportunity to seek out the representatives of the tea garden management and have not taken their views on this issue; perhaps our lessons will get significantly enriched when we hear their side of the story.

Hatigarh is a potent microcosm of the human-elephant conflict landscape all over the country, and is a direct outcome of the encroachment of elephant habitats by man. It will require field organizations, policy makers, community leaders and a whole lot of committed leadership to alter this bloody landscape. Whether everything can be restored is doubtful, but it is critical to acknowledge that elephants are being denied their right to food and passage, often fatally so.

Acknowledgements: We are deeply indebted to Mr Jayanta Kr. Das, Rabiya Daimary and Col Rohit Sharma for their photographs, videos, time, wisdom and hospitality.

All the information listed here, unless reported as being directly witnessed, has been sourced from three set of information: Wikipedia, anecdotes and project reports.