5. Elephant Migration and Dispersal: A Biogeographic Process

This chapter focuses on the biogeographical processes of elephant migration. The chapter is based on different dimensions of elephant migration in the study area. It starts by briefly reviewing the historical perspectives of elephant migration. Secondary information on the number of migrated elephants and the duration of stay in the destination habitat was collected from different forest beat, range and divisional forest offices and was analysed through statistical tools. Migration routes and their temporal shift have been identified through geographic information systems and were verified by ground information. When one analyses the nature and characteristics of elephant movement, some interesting facts come up. There is a strong relationship between crop calendar and migration and it can be seen that the movement is season-dependent. These facts were justified by correlating different variables and are represented through different cartograms. Movements of elephants within different patches were tracked and depicted in forest fragment maps. It may be useful to forecast the movement of elephants to avoid conflicts and agricultural loss. Another tendency is that migrated elephants turn into residential elephants, which becomes a major issue in the destination habitat as it raises the issue of human–elephant conflict as well as that of conflict between residential elephant and migrated elephant. This chapter addresses both of these issues.