Rainfall strongest environmental factor linked to elephant occurrence in southern Western Ghats: CWS study
A study by the Centre for Wildlife Studies indicates that rainfall is the primary environmental factor influencing elephant movement in the southern Western Ghats. The research also highlights the complex relationship between human settlement expansion and elephant habitats.
Why it matters
Understanding wildlife movement patterns is essential for mitigating human-wildlife conflict and planning effective conservation strategies.
The Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS), in a new research study conducted in the southern Western Ghats region of Karnataka and Kerala, has found that rainfall was the strongest environmental factor linked to reported elephant occurrence in both States.
The study titled ‘Integrating Ecological Modelling and Local Knowledge to Understand Elephant Occurrence and Human-Elephant Interactions in the Southern Western Ghats’ examines where people and Asian elephants are most likely to overlap across the southern Western Ghats and how that overlap may shift by 2030.
In 2022, 507 community residents were interviewed across villages surrounding the Bandipur and Nagarahole National Parks and the Palakkad and Mannarkkad forest divisions.
The CWS said rainfall emerged as the single strongest environmental factor linked to reported elephant occurrence in both States, and that the relationships were often complex rather than following simple straight lines.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in