A herd from Nilgiris takes over New York, throws spotlight on a jumbo problem

The statues have been conceptualised by Gudalur-based The Real Elephant Collective (TREC) and sculpted from boiled Lantana by 200 tribal artisans from the Nilgiris, who make up the Coexistence Collective. “The scene in New York is hard to describe. It is amazing to see hundreds and hundreds of people, all so moved by the elephants. People who live nearby keep coming back and volunteering to look after the elephants,” says Tarsh Thekaekara, a researcher and conservationist who works on human-animal inclusive models of nature conservation.

The statues are made in a workshop in Gudalur, Tamil Nadu, by artisans from the Soliga, Betta Kurumba, Kattunayakan and Paniya tribes. TREC

Tarsh, who co-founded TREC with Subhash, Subhra Nayar and Tariq Thekaekara, says,“The logistics of travelling with the elephants is not difficult. The challenging part is to push the message of coexistence. Traditional conservation assumes that we need to protect only the pockets of forests and ignore the rest. That is not working. Animals are coming out of forests everywhere in the world.”

And who would know about human-animal conflict better than the tribals? Gudalur lies in the middle of the Western Ghats, located between Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and close to four forest reserves, Mudumalai, Wayanad, Bandipur and Mukurthi. Locals here have grown up seeing elephants and leopards around their houses, but fatal elephant attacks have risen over the past few years.

Ramesh Madan, who is in his 30s and belongs to the Betta Kurumba tribe, says, “When I was a child, an elephant or two would come (to our houses) in the jackfruit season. I have never known so many elephants to come near our houses, as has been happening in the last few years. When we go into the forest to collect things, I can see that Lantana has taken over large parts. It is the reason why elephants are coming out of the forest.”

A weed that sports clusters of small, colourful flowers, Lantana camara was brought to India by the British as an ornamental plant in the 1800s. According to a study in the Journal of Applied Ecology in October 2023, Lantana has penetrated over 5,74,186 sq km of India, including 50 per cent of the country’s natural areas.

In a takeover by Lantana, which is fast-growing and toxic, a forest gets completely matted, not allowing for growth of any other plant species. Deprived of their food sources, animals are pushed out of forests into urban areas. Moreover, as Lantana goes up trees, forest fires become more widespread. TERC co-founder Subhash says, “If trees burn, they don’t come back as quickly as grasses.”

One of the co-founders is the resident designer who constructs metal structures of elephants over which the artisans place strips of Lantana. TREC

Tarsh, Subhash, Subhra and Tariq, who were schoolmates, came back to Gudalur to contribute to their home. Between 2013 and 2015, TREC started a mapping exercise at the four forest reserves in collaboration with the Shola Trust in Gudalur. “Initially, the forest department was in denial and we had to physically ascertain how bad the Lantana problem was. We found that 30-40 per cent of the forest was taken over by Lantana. If 30 per cent of land area is not viable for animals, it could be the reason elephants were coming out of forests,” says Subhash.

It was Tarsh and Subhra who first came across Ruth Ganesh, a trustee of the Elephant Family. The organisation creates outdoor figures of elephants to draw attention and finances for the protection of Asian elephants. TREC, which was looking for fresh ideas, wondered if it could make life-size elephant statues out of Lantana. “What was beautiful in that whole exercise was that the indigenous communities did not need to be taught to make the elephant figures,” says Subhash.

In the workshop above his office in Gudalur, artisans from the Soliga, Betta Kurumba, Kattunayakan and Paniya tribes are immersed in creating elephant statues. Each model is a likeness of a real wild elephant that the tribals coexist with. Subhra, who has a background in puppetry, is the resident designer. Using photographs, she constructs metal structures of elephants over which the artisans place strips of Lantana, which are cut out from the forest by a group. “Lantana are boiled and used for the sculptures,” says Tarsh.

The pieces are sold by TREC to partners, who auction them in the US and the UK, among others. The profits go into supporting human-wildlife coexistence projects across the world, including India. In India, the funds are disseminated through the Coexistence Consortium, which comprises ecologists, anthropologists, geographers and conservationists, among others, who promote the concept of coexistence.

M Ranjini, also from the Betta Kurumba tribe, manages the production of the Lantana elephants. “We feel hopeful that the New York exhibition is spreading our message,” she says.

India’s policy on invasive species is, according to Delhi-based naturalist and author Pradip Krishen, “patchy at best and close to nil at worst”. “We are one of the last countries in the world to have an official Invasive Alien Species (IAS) list. In Delhi, where I live, the forest department stands by while a highly invasive tree like subabool (Leucaena leucocephala) fills up the Ridge and unoccupied verges in the city. The invasive vilayati kikar accounts for more than 90 per cent of the trees inside the huge Central Ridge in the heart of the city. Delhi’s Tree Act is completely silent about invasive plants. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would say that awareness might be 4 or 5, but effective action and policy remain abysmally low at 1 or 0.5,” he adds.

The weed is cut out from the forest by a group, boiled and used for the sculptures. TREC

Krishen says that Lantana — like Chromolaena — has proliferated under the noses of forest authorities. “I have heard foresters say that Lantana is being unnecessarily demonised and that it provides habitat for small animals like hares and pigs, as well as food for bears, butterflies, and so on. This needs to be weighed against the harm Lantana does to natural habitats, such as pushing out native plant species, reducing forage for wild ungulates (animals with hoofs), having many deleterious effects especially on the herbaceous layer and greatly reducing biodiversity. The areas most affected are dry deciduous forests, which includes all of northern India upto the sub-Himalayan zone, all of Central India, parts of the arid zone in the west excluding the Thar desert and along the Eastern Ghats,” he says

Subhash adds that, for generations, tribal communities managed forests. “After the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, they were stopped from accessing forests. Controlled forest floor fires are one of the ways indigenous communities manage forests. That helped because grasses grew well and so herbivores did well. With Lantana taking over the forest, the viability of forests was reduced. We would like indigenous communities to access forests so that they can actively participate in its management. This became another driver for us to get involved,” he says.

Tarsh adds, “If we carry on with the traditional model, we are creating pockets of forests that are being taken over by the Lantana. We are destroying the rest of the world and creating unhealthy environments for ourselves to live in. That is what we have to change. It is the vision that we are pushing overall with the Lantana elephants and it is not easy for people to grasp. They see the elephant, are amazed by it and take home the word ‘coexistence’. But, slowly, coexistence is a bigger message that we will be driving.”