Man as a hunter, concentrated on large mammals and flightless birds
and drove them out of existence. Today, the Indian
elephant, one of the largest
land animals in existence, feels the heavy hand of man. With its historical
habitat mostly destroyed, its numbers are severely getting reduced. The
reserves that most
elephants live in are seldom large enough to contain the
huge ranges they require. Their traditional migration routes have been blocked
by man-made structures or have been taken over for agricultural. Crops such as
sugarcane and cereals, very attractive to elephants, have been sown in these
and other areas around reserves. Elephants do much damage to them in their
nightly raids. The intruders are often severely injured or killed in the
defensive and retaliatory action. These encounters are referred to as ‘man-elephant conflicts’. Romancing the Elephant offers a
strategy for mitigation of these. This study focuses on Nagarhole and Bandipur National Parks,
which hold one of the largest elephant populations in India. The book is more like a
technical report or a doctoral thesis giving a description of the topography,
climate, geology and human use of the study area, a detailed discussion of the
vegetation therein, estimates of the biomass productivity and carrying capacity
of the national parks and finally the recommendations for lessening the
conflict between man and elephant. A detailed action plan is given in the final
chapter and the strategy to reduce conflict is spelt out. The strategy to
reduce conflict with elephant is also given. But it is not told whether any of
these strategies were put into practice and, if so, to what effect. The book
has number of colour plates, a list of plants found in Nagarhole and Bandipur
and partial lists of the vertebrate fauna therein. There is also a select
bibliography.