yes but what does an elephant mean to us
for some they might mean large bodied
mammals who are arranging free and wild
in pristine forested areas beautiful to
be photograph for others they could be
pests feeding from crops that are
painstakingly grown for some others they
could be the embodiment of Lord Ganesha
himself but if you ask a biologist and
elephant biologist like me trying to
understand human and elephant
interaction over the last 10 years I
would wonder what the elephant might
think of us humans in the Anthropocene a
geological age that we are living in now
where the human impact on vile animal
and elephants not being an exception has
been immense what might be an elephants
be thinking of us increasing
anthropogenic activities and pleasures
on shared resources between humans and
elephants has brought elephants ever
closer to us to an extent where
elephants are today seen very close to
urban habitats this is a highway that
you see you can see trucks moving it’s 2
a.m. in the morning and soon you will
meet one of the individual elephants
that I study meet Harris Don Heather
here means King estas knowledge and
orders Cuba for me Harris tar is a 21st
century elephant he knows how to open
he can also probably perceive and assess
the level of threat the human being
posed to him and he was calm he was
relaxed he didn’t attack unprovoked he
also knows that he has to look right
while crossing the road
that’s the four-lane highway and
elephants do this but it’s not all
hunky-dory it’s not easy for elephants
living alongside humans and human
dominated landscapes and most often the
end is not very happy this is her star
the same elephant that you saw crossing
the highway being held captive he was
captured and taken his mistake that he
was roaming around in human dominated
landscape where the potential conflict
between humans and elephants ‘as in Metz
so the question we asked today is how
are we breaking an elephant in today as
well and why should we care at all I
think we should care because I believe
that elephants very similar to us humans
are sentient beings let me show you how
we use camera traps to study
distribution and movement of elephants
in human dominated areas think of a
camera trap as a device that is tied to
a tree whenever there is movement of an
animal in front of the camera trap the
camera takes a photograph recently our
camera traps were visited by a group of
young boys from the local village and
this is what what they did there was one
boy second third they were curious they
came very close and looked at the camera
they went back came back with another
young friend
he seemed aggressive maybe the dominant
of the whole individual of the whole
gang see heaps pointing the finger at
the camera probably saying oh I’ve
noticed these researchers a lesson today
so they go back and come and perform a
dance in front of the camera
well how different our elephants meet
Tintin his named Tintin because his
tusks are curved upwards like the hair
of Tintin this is the first time Tintin
is front of this camera the camera is
placed at a point where Tintin crosses
over to the crop field so as soon as
Tintin has come in front of the camera
woke up took a photograph with a flash
this is at night this must have reminded
Tintin of the torch lights that farmers
used to chase elephants away from crop
fields and his response was obvious he
turned back and started running but
something different happened the flash
and the torchlight was not accompanied
by bursting crackers or people shouting
and chasing behind an elephant so he
turned back to find out what’s happening
he’s blind in the right eye he can only
see with his left so he takes a better
look from his left eye he’s not
convinced you can see him shifting his
weight from one leg to another and
that’s ambi violent behavior in
elephants he’s still not convinced so he
goes to the other side takes closer look
at the camera from the left leg goes
back still not convinced chunk in the
mouth again an ambivalent behavior he’s
thinking trying to figure out what is
this alien thing that’s is there in my
home right now he comes back he seems
more relaxed after a while he’s probably
things okay I know there’s something but
it may not be a trait so I’ll move on
because I need to go out and feed on
cups so he goes and note the date it’s
5/7 2016 the next day a young associate
of his PT junior comes to the exact same
camera his response is very similar he
goes back turns around on things that
it’s okay and he moves a few days later
three days to be precise
both the elephants come in front of the
camera it’s Tintin and Petey jr. there
they seem to be trying to figure out
what’s there they even come and touch
the camera just like the young
aggressive dominant young boy showing
his finger but luckily they didn’t
damage it again
Petey jr. is touching his faith as this
face with its trunk which is ambivalent
behavior they seem to have a small
discussion and decided that it’s all
okay we know that this device or
whatever the object is there it’s not
harming us so they go back but every
time they come back along this route and
see the camera they make eye contact
with the camera they see if it’s there
didn’t
come I can a closer look Peter jr. comes
closer takes a closer look and then they
mourn what does this tell us about
elephants elephants are extremely
intelligent beings in a rapidly changing
landscape elephants need to update their
mental model of reality all the time in
order to survive in what other ways are
the similar it was their group living
and highly social beings in fact in
elephant societies it’s the oldest
female that takes decisions and leads
the herd the young males around the age
of 10 to 15 years dispersed from the
natal group to avoid inbreeding and they
move out to rather live a very salty
life thereafter an elephant lives up to
70 years but what has happened to their
habitat and what have we done to their
habitat within the span of the 70 years
they’ve lost nearly 70 percent of the
habitat what does it mean it means that
elephants are in constant conflict with
people in India alone every year about
400 human lives and about hundred 50
elephants succumb to this conflict
so the rapid and large-scale land use
change has left a lot of our elephants
homeless so what do we see today today
we see elephants like this being coerced
across crop fields large hurts you don’t
see forests there you see open crop
fields and in these groups you can also
see young calves that are born in a
conflict area they’re living there
they’re growing up there imagine what
could what these young elephants may be
thinking for them growing up conflict is
a norm it’s like your child and my child
growing up in a city like Bangalore
traffic becomes enormous for a while
it’s there it’s part of daily life but
it’s very difficult for elephants
especially young ones to live and
survive in such landscapes because it’s
a high risk so they have two options one
is that they learn through trial and
error and this is especially true for
young dispersing males like him because
they need to set out on their own
if trial and
it’s done they have to learn all of it
on their own in the risks are too high
so high that they can get killed one of
our young males tried to cross the
Bangalore Chennai Highway and was hit by
a bus and he died the other option of
course is you could associate yourself
with another experienced male who’s been
living in this human dominated area he
knows how to navigate across this
landscape so let’s go back to Harris
table 20 years ago you see young Harris
thought there to your extreme right
following an older bull on the life
Harris thaw was learning how to navigate
this landscape by associating with peer
group members and with older individuals
and today you see Hill estar again being
a dominant bull on the left a complete
by two younger males into the same human
dominate area where he was twenty years
ago and at one point you will see here
estas slowing down and he takes his
fifth right and the young males follow
so the older bulls are extremely
essential in a bull Society and in the
elephant population they not just help
the younger males how to navigate and
survive in challenging landscapes but
also help them be calm and not end up
killing people because of the
inexperience of the younger bulls the
older builds have a calming effect on
the younger males which can avoid deaths
so males develop a strategy when we
change their homes home range modified
it from a forested area to a non
forested one the young males decided
that they have to band together in order
to survive in such a landscape that’s
what they know so we broke them at one
point but they showed us that they were
unbreakable thanks to their behavioral
plasticity so we study elephants
especially these males during the day
and at night we observe how they
interact with one another
who do they associate with what are they
time activity budgets and how we can
actually inform in management in
reducing and/or mitigating conflict
this has become a common sight now young
males and other elephants being caused
and chased across crop fields you see
five young males here who being changed
into a forested area during the day so
they get older over time but like I said
it’s risky a number of the young males
that we were studying started dying of
electrocution of accidents they were
shot by irate farmers it was not just
elephants who were getting killed it
with people – a number of human deaths
happen and a lot of it was because the
elephant was scared when it encountered
a person they didn’t know how to respond
because all the males such as their star
were not there they were taken off so
modification of behavior and adaptation
to an urbanizing landscape in elephants
has its cost both social and personal
and here is prob we paid the ultimate
price he was kept in captivity and being
in captivity is no easy it’s a very
difficult situation to be in and it’s
really not for the faint-hearted life in
captivity at least in the early
interaction period between the mahute
and the elephant is all about
establishing dominance it’s about power
equation but I interacted with the male
elephants – in elephant camps trying to
figure out how this relationship works
let me show this to you again with an
example here is a old male who had who’s
and must and he has his mahute with him
and you see that the interaction is very
calm and peaceful he even picks up his
own chain and go and here you see
another male elephant of the same age in
must again experienced male with an
experienced Maho and you see the
interaction to be one which is
so what was the difference between the
two interactions it was just time spent
together an interaction which moves from
being a dominance interaction between
the two individuals towards a more
associative affiliative interaction and
this requires time who doesn’t all of us
do need time and elephants currently in
today’s scenario need that time and
space to adapt to the changes that we
are making in their home harris-stowe
is today in an elephant camp only time
will tell if he will associate with his
new Mahad will he actually still
remember his past or will he look
forward to another future with
interacting with humans I’d like to end
leaving you with just two points that
you can take home one every time that
you see an elephant in chain or in
captivity do remember that it has a dark
past a past that should remind us of the
hegemonic relationship that we share not
only with the elephants but a lot of
other living beings around us the second
and probably a very important one a
lesson learned from elephants is that
every time we try breaking them they
showed us that they could rise with the
help of behavioral plasticity maybe it’s
time for us humans also to show some
behavioral plasticity – towards
elephants maybe it’s time we have
lifestyles that are more compatible with
elephant use of the area thank you [Applause]