Isha Yoga Center and the lies about Elephant Corridor!

What is the allegation on Isha Foundation about elephants?

There is an allegation on the Isha Foundation that the Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore is blocking an elephant corridor.

  

We thought we will do an independent study of all this and find out the truth for ourselves. Here is what we found out so far.

First of all, what is an elephant corridor?

A wildlife corridor may be defined in simple terms as a relatively narrow strip of habitat that provides a passage for the target species to move between two larger expanses of habitat. Field observations in southern India indicate that both elephant herds and solitary bulls use passage that are 0.5 km to 1 km wide and less than about 5 km long.

  

The corridors identified in the reports are based on Crucial parameters like migration paths, use pattern by elephants, critical bottle neck areas. 

Who is the authority on Elephant Corridors in India?

The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) is a leading Indian nature conservation organisation committed to the service of nature and supports the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

What are the key documentation listing elephant corridors?

A simple search on Google will reveal this information.

The WTI has published a comprehensive document called 'Right of passage: Elephant Corridors of India' in 2017.

https://www.wti.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/pub_right_of_passage-1.pdf

There is another document called 'Gajah, Securing the Future for Elephants in India' published by Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2010.

http://www.environmentandsociety.org/sites/default/files/key_docs/Gajah.pdf

There is a very brief talk about vehicular movement in the Valparai-Pollachi road for Attakati - Valparai area in the SACON document.

http://www.sacon.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/FT-2000-PR162-Brief-documentation-of-Elephant-Corridors-in-Southern-India.pdf

This is several miles away from where Isha Foundation is located in Coimbatore.

What does the Tamilnadu Government say about the elephant corridors?

The primary source of Tamilnadu Government's online data is their website:

https://www.forests.tn.gov.in/pages/view/Introduction-wild

The Tamilnadu Government’s website actually lists the reserves for elephants in Tamilnadu but has nothing related to the Isha Yoga Center in Tamilnadu!

What does the 'WTI - Right of Passage' report say about Isha Foundation?

Pages 372 to 375 of the WTI document cover about an elephant corridor through the Booluvampatti-Attapadi Reserve forest.

The document identifies the corridor length as 9 KM and width as 1 KM max. Estimated elephant population in that landscape is 390. This is the closest elephant corridor to Isha Yoga Center, which is still several miles away from where the center is located.

Major buildings in the elephant corridor area are referred as: Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Karl Kubel Institute, PSG Institution and Swami Dayanand Saraswati Ashram.

The villages that fall into the elephant corridor are: Kandivalli, Kondanur Pudur, Panapalli and Moongilpallam are located in and around the corridor area.

There are some villages dependent on the elephant corridor area: Sembukarai, Kandivalli, Dhoomanur, Panapalli, Jambukandi, Veerapandi Pudur, Kondanur, Mel Baavi, Pudur, Kil Baavi.

Facts to consider:

- Isha Foundation is not part of the Booluvampatti Reserve Forest. It is outside the reserve forest area.

- The buildings of Isha Foundation are not even mentioned in the report though many other would-be / proposed projects are also listed. This is simply because they are not in the elephant corridor.

- Villages near Isha Foundation are not even mentioned in the major human settlements section, because they also are not in the elephant corridor.

If we look at where the Isha Yoga Center is located from each of the places mentioned, the aerial distance itself is several kilometres. On road distance is way too high.

Distance from Veerapandi Pudur (>17 KM aerial distance)

Distance from SACON (>14 KM aerial distance)

Distance from Karl Kubel institute (>15 KM aerial distance)

What’s in a Name? A whole lot!

There is the ‘Booluvampatti’ which is the reserved forest area, the borders of which are close to the Isha Yoga Center. Then there is ‘Boluvampatti’ village which is on the other side of the Isha Foundation. There is a ‘Pooluvapatti’ village down below that has nothing to do with all this. So, some people are confusing the Boluvampatti village with Booluvampatti reserved forest and saying Isha Center is in forest area. The map shows that it is not so clearly.

Now what does the 'Gajah' report contain?

There is not a single reference to Isha or Booluvampatti areas in this document! Pages 59 - 61 of this document talk about the Brahmagiri - Nilgiri landscape, Anamalai - Nelliampathy landscape and Periyar - Agasthyamalai landscape for elephants. None of them even remotely mention about the Booluvampatti area or the Isha Foundation for that matter.

The Gajah report in fact refers to and talks about the Wild Life Trust of India report on how to preserve elephant corridor areas.

What have neutral / independent researchers found?

While searching online, there is not much research by independent researches. One good publication is: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/hindu2/2017/02/1105/

Their findings clearly show that the Isha yoga center is not anywhere near an elephant corridor.

"The Isha Yoga Center falls within the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu state. Currently, the Forest Department has NOT created any Elephant Corridor in this district. This was a big surprise for me considering the hue and cry the allegations make about the usurping of Elephant Corridor! One can place an RTI request with the Department of Environment, Tamil Nadu and ascertain this for themselves. The Tamil Nadu forest department has created an elephant corridor in 2011 in the Nilgiris district that adjoins the Coimbatore district. This is nowhere near the Isha Yoga Center."

One more such analysis is published on: https://syskool.com/wildlife-corridors-elephant-lifelines/

Marudamalai – Thanikandy Corridor is encircled in the north and south by Coimbatore, on the west by Kerala and on the east by Iruttupallam village in Tamil Nadu. It is still a few kilometres away from where the Isha Yoga Center is! And the major threat to the corridor is actually cited as the expansion of Agriculture in its area. What has the Isha Foundation got to do with this?

If it is not an elephant corridor, why are elephants seen near the Isha Center at times?

If one knows anything about elephants, one would know that elephants are herd beings. They always move in a group. The sightings of elephants near Isha Center have not been like a big herd of elephants. Most of the sightings are of stray elephants which have moved away from their herd. 

Such stray elephants have been seen in almost all parts of Coimbatore, not just near the Isha Center. Check these out:

https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/watch-elephant-strolling-in-coimbatore-residential-area-wildlife-1106451-2017-12-13

https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/herd-of-5-elephants-enter-residential-area-in-coimbatore20191116165956/

The lands near Isha Foundation have been agricultural lands, with primarily sugarcane, tamarind and banana plantations. All of these are very attractive for elephants as sources of food! Some of these lands no longer have sugarcane crops but elephants come habitually when there is a shortage of food and water in the forest.

Where traditional farmers practised rain-fed subsistence agriculture for a few months in a year, today, farmers have assured irrigation through borewells and tubewells. Farmers have turned to growing crops such as sugarcane, banana and arecanut that bring better income.

The Government and NGO officials are clear on what is causing elephants to raid crops:

“Before 1995, farmers practised rain-fed agriculture, and during January (harvest period) and February, elephants occasionally raided crops. Later, the foothill landscape changed. People from different places brought land here and started practising commercial agriculture. Rain-fed farming changed to the farming of perennial crops.”

Over the years, WWF-India has adopted a range of methods to facilitate effective measures to manage human-elephant conflict (HEC) in the region. Developing site specific HEC management strategies, capacitating local communities and state forest departments, forming anti-depredation squads, and even installing low cost power fences are some of the many initiatives that have been undertaken.

https://www.wwfindia.org/about_wwf/critical_regions/western_ghats2/?16541/Co-existing-with-pachyderms

So, usage of power fences is a recommended method. Some farmers tend to abuse it though by using high-tension power fences. Such a thing does not happen with the Isha Foundation.

Also, this is not an isolated phenomenon that elephants come into nearby places in search of food or sometimes just like that. Here is a recent instance (March 2020) when a tusker walked into Wayanad after the Corona Virus lockdown had happened. 

Source: https://twitter.com/SudhaRamenIFS/status/1244135872984842240?s=20

So, such an argument does not even hold water.

No, No, Not Elephant Corridor – it is Elephant Habitat!

Some so-called activists are now changing the narrative stating that the issue is not about elephant corridor but about elephant habitat! This is not just invention of a new term but a nefarious intent to malign the Foundation somehow.

Any wildlife habitat indicates the area in which that wildlife lives. Typically, elephant habitats involve several square kilometres of forest area where elephant herds live. It is not a place where they visit periodically but a place where they ‘live’! There is no list of habitats or anything like this. There has never been one. 

You will not find a single authentic document by online search also.

So, these people are just manufacturing new terms and new type of allegations against the Foundation.

Source: https://www.forests.tn.gov.in/pages/view/Introduction-wild

What is the Isha Foundation itself saying about all this?

The Isha Foundation has published all these proofs that it's not in elephant corridor on its website itself. Several instances in the past, during interviews also have the Foundation representatives have refuted these allegations.

Website: https://isha.sadhguru.org/in/en/blog/article/truth-isha-yoga-center-elephant-corridor

Conclusion

It is very clear that there is no truth whatsoever to the allegations on Isha Yoga Center occupying Elephant Corridor. Several sources have been analysed and facts understood before concluding so.

An earlier related post in this blog has some of this information already and this post is for providing more clarity: http://kazhugupaarvai.blogspot.com/2017/02/allegations-about-isha-part-3-is-isha.html 

More references:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266742130_IMPACT_OF_URBANISATION_ON_BIODIVERSITY_Case_Studies_From_India/download

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