Use phenyl, chilli smoke to deter wild elephants: Expert

Pilibhit: A three-week awareness campaign on mitigating human-elephant conflict concluded in Pilibhit on Wednesday, with experts training local communities in practical and scientific methods to deal with wild elephants.

A Bengaluru-based elephant ecologist, Dr Rudraditya, led the drive in association with forest personnel across more than a dozen villages near Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, areas highly vulnerable to elephant incursions from Nepal.

Explaining elephant behaviour, he highlighted their sharp memory and strong sense of smell, along with their ability to identify humans by scent. These traits, he said, influence their migration patterns and interactions with people.

Dr Rudraditya visited the reserve on the joint invitation of divisional forest officer Manish Singh and Forest & Wildlife Division officer Bharat Kumar DK. Officials said this was the first such scientific outreach for villagers in the region.

“Elephants have exceptional memory due to a large cerebral cortex,” he said, adding that they retain both positive and negative experiences. Areas where they were chased or attacked often see repeated incursions.

He urged villagers to adopt preventive measures instead of confronting elephants. “Burning red chilli on smouldering cow dung cakes can help. The smoke deters elephants without harming humans,” he said.

Highlighting their acute sense of smell, he noted that elephants can detect stored grain from up to 10 km away due to a highly developed olfactory system.

“They use infrasonic calls to alert the herd once food is located,” he said. To counter this, he advised spraying phenyl around storage areas to mask the smell of grains.

Pilibhit Tiger Reserve shares a border with Nepal’s Shuklaphanta National Park, from where elephants migrate annually during the monsoon, staying for three to four months across PTR and nearby forest areas, including Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Lakhimpur Kheri.

At present, two male elephants from Nepal are in the Mala forest range of PTR, posing a threat to crops in nearby villages.
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