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Bellan, Forest Watcher, on the right.

Nassim Taleb, one of my favorite authors, wrote about heroes in his book “The Black Swan”. He said something a bit startling: if an administrator had taken the proper safety steps, the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York may not have happened. This administrator would have been a hero but no one would have known because nothing would have happened in the first place. Heroes are characterized first by their sense of duty.

The term “wildlife hero” we hear too often has become overused. We see so much craving for fame in the little world of conservation that any designated wildlife hero will suddenly believe in a stratospheric status and never come back to earth.

Mr. Bellan, a simple forest watcher, who died at sixty a few weeks ago, was not into self-promotion. Of humble origin, he never expected rewards and he would have been astonished to see that people took an interest in him. He was from a family of shikaris and had a deep, intuitive understanding of wildlife.

The first time I met Bellan was when I had been charged by an angry elephant. People had burst fire crackers near our house and I wanted to tell them to stop disturbing the elephant which was around. Unfortunately, I did not know the elephant’s exact location and he charged on seeing me. It was a miraculous escape. Bellan came when we complained about the fire crackers and we told him the story. He also had escaped an attack. The elephant stepped on him, breaking a few ribs. It took him six months before he recovered from the shock, even though he looked tough. This was sort of healing for me to realize that to be unsettled under these circumstances was natural.

Recently, Bellan had to take charge of Rivaldo, the local elephant star. Rivaldo is radio-collared and constantly under supervision to make sure he does not get fed by people. Every time Rivaldo decided to come to drink at our tank, we could meet with Bellan. It was fascinating because he knew the jungle just like the old folks. We were so happy to see a person with whom we could share our ideas and be understood. For example, we hide when we see Rivaldo. So many of the forest staff who were noisy and fully visible to the elephants, mistook our behavior for something else. They thought we were frightened when in fact we just prefer elephants not to get used to human presence. Bellan understood why we were going away and he himself was quiet and inconspicuous.

Bellan told us that the anti poaching watchers were insufficiently trained to be in the jungle. We could not agree more with him. The watchers are a walking disturbance now armed with their mobile phones with which they keep on taking selfies and probably post the pictures on social media. We have seen watchers being charged when the provocation was completely avoidable. So, he trained them and did what he could given that he was in the lower rank of the hierarchy.

Earlier, Bellan was requested to follow Ronaldo who was the most powerful and aggressive tusker in the region. Ronaldo had been injured on his back the first time, and on the second time a flaming object was thrown on him. The elephant suffered and died in agony. Bellan was the man who was saying a tearful goodbye if you read “Tamil Nadu forester bids emotional goodbye to dead elephant link required. Watch a heart-wrenching video.”* His name never appeared in the paper. If I can speak for Bellan who is no more, his tears may not have been only because he was a sensitive guy who liked elephants, but also because many such incidents could be avoided. The newspaper said Bellan was a Ranger. He was only a Watcher. People of his capability don’t get promoted. And, yes, he was a hero.

Jean-Philippe Puyravaud.

*We never watched the video. We knew too well what it was to lose Ronaldo.

Following the 2017 drought, when many elephants died in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, there was attempts to reassure the public regarding this particular situation (https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-and-biodiversity/elephants-in-drought-hit-karnataka-tamil-nadu-die-to-hunger-thirst-57661).

We posted a blog in this website to warn that if elephant populations were regulated by natural conditions centuries ago, today “unnatural” conditions imposed by humanity, prevail.

Indeed, we have just published an article based on thousands of observations in India and Nepal. With the lead author Dr. Rajapandian Kanagaraj an alumni of the Wildlife Institute of India, and currently at the National Museum of Natural Sciences at Madrid, Spain, this paper shows that global warming will destroy half of the elephant habitat in India. A first modelling technique detected the relationship between environment and elephant range. Then a second set of models proposed range changes under different climate change scenarios.

The results show that by the end of the century, 42% of the present elephant range will be lost because of global warming and land use changes. The temperature increase will affect the vegetation to provoke irreversible ecological damages and make ecosystems unusable by elephants. With impacts of this magnitude, we would also be wise to accelerate adaptation of farming practices because crop and animal production will certainly be badly affected as well.

The view of “business-as-usual” with wildlife – and our world – is an attitude of the past. We enter a period where all efforts possible to protect and mitigate global warming must be made.

Jean-Philippe Puyravaud

We have recently published a scientific paper (here) on rare tree species in the Western Ghats of India with colleagues belonging to different institutions.

In general, rarity is of interest to conservation biologists because rare species tend to be at greater risk of extinction than common species. The Western Ghats rain forests have a high proportion of endemic trees (around 64% of evergreen trees ≥10 cm girth at breast height), found only in this biogeographic region. Therefore rare species that are endemic are doubly vulnerable. We estimated that around 48% of 514 species were rare, of which 28 endemics were found in only one site. Rare species had narrower ecological amplitudes, being restricted to particular regions such as the southern Western Ghats and montane forests. Rare species with broader geographical distributions tended to be both wide ranging and locally sparse and narrow ranging and locally dense, and some from single species families could be relictual. Rare species were more likely to be threatened, although 39% have not been evaluated by IUCN. Rarity and endemism increased with increasing family size, indicating that the Western Ghats wet forests are both a cradle of new species (which are rare) and a museum of disappearing species (which are also rare). These forests have been the source of major crops (mango, jackfruit, pepper, cardamon) and should be properly protected because of their unique evolutionary history and biodiversity.

Priya Davidar