Using satellite telemetry to mitigate elephant-human conflict: An experiment in northern West Bengal, India

Abstract

Satellite tracking of animals has advantages in the study of species that migrate across international borders, have large home ranges and occupy remote and inaccessible areas. The efficacy of this technology in dense tropical forests may, however, be limited. At the same time,its use in mitigating wild life-human conflict has not been examined so far. Here we report the movement patterns and habit at utilization of an adult male Asian elephant, and a preliminary assessment. of the potential use of satellite technology as an 'early warning system' for conflict mitigation. Data on the location of the animal were obtained from a Platform Transmitter Terminal mounted on an elephant in Jaldapara, West Bengal, the first if its kind used on this species inIndia. We found that the animal preferred forest and forest plantations during the day, making visits to cultivated lands at night. There was some predictability, in the movement of this animal, suggesting that,similar technologies such as the more advanced Global Positioning System can be used for near 'real-time tracking' of problem elephants.