Elephant Friendly Tea

Elephant Friendly Tea? Christian Science Monitor recently published this story. What does elephant friendly look like? "The estate, which lies in the middle of an elephant corridor [in Assam], has been working for years to help wild elephants in the area. Actions include creating elephant pools; planting native trees, shrubs, and grasses so that elephants have shelter and forage; implementing an early warning system for workers; and training estate security to keep elephant corridors free."

The article goes on to state that there are over 5,000 wild elephants in Assam...this is very wrong. There were that many as recently as a decade ago, but the numbers dropped precipitously with the exponential growth of the human population and industry in the region. A huge influx of Delhi people were brought in to manage new hill-climbing tea plantations, which were the final haven for wild elephants. The mountainous terrain has been terraced by using modern earth moving equipment and knowhow. The elephants have perished - many died, many fragmented and pushed out of Assam. Very little is left of the pristine wildlands of Assam. Only the postage stamp sized Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park remain and they host under one hundred elephants each, if that. Other herds are scattered, like the former island elephants of the Brahmaputra River. The island elephants annually sneak into the region of their former habitat (the upland Brahmaputra riparian corridor), while now staying safe within the chain of islands that are seasonally surrounded by the river.

An added note for folks wanting to visit Assam for its wildlife, including Rhinos....don't go! You will be frustrated by the zoo like conditions of the small national parks, and the surrounding country is nothing like it used to be. Seeing wild elephants is nearly impossible. In fact, the park service rangers keep people away from the places where wild elephants reside, because they are on the cusp of being lost as well. The elephants reside in a corner of the already shrunken park (they are actually carving out portions of the parks for industrial/tourism purposes). Truly wild lands are not found within Assam. For wild lands, go to Odisha or Karnataka...not Assam.

For more information about elephant friendly tea gardens, go here: https://www.elephantapproved.net/