GeoDa Center helps analyze human-elephant conflicts in India
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India, home to one-fifth of the world's population, also holds the world's largest elephant population. As elephant habitats become increasingly modified and fragmented, conflicts between elephants and humans are increasing. The conflicts result in crop and property damage, injury and loss of human lives. At the same time, retaliatory killing and wounding of wildlife further endangers the survival prospects of wild species and conservation of natural areas. Beginning this summer, the GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation, an ASU research unit affiliated with the School, gained an opportunity to address these problems through a research exchange with scientists from India's Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) and National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS). Following initial communication between the Nature Conservation Foundation and the GeoDa Center in 2008 and early 2009, the two groups developed a plan to expand their collaboration. In July, GeoDa Center members Dr. Julia Koschinsky and Daniel Arribas-Bel traveled to India with several objectives: to visit the Anamalai-Parambikulam Elephant Reserve with NCF researchers, discuss spatial analysis modeling for human-elephant conflicts with them, and offer a spatial analysis workshop to a larger group of students in India. Each phase of the trip brought valuable benefits: First, the GeoDa Center participants gained valuable insights into the human-wildlife conflict in India and NCF's current research. They learned about an initial spatial analysis conducted by the NCF, which used extensive field data on locations for virtually all human-elephant conflicts in their study area, and indicated that the presence of bamboo was related to lower numbers of human-elephant conflicts. NCF and GeoDa are currently undertaking an extension of this analysis, which will be valuable in facilitating more effective conflict interventions. The spatial analysis workshop, held in Bengaluru (Bangalore), was attended by 30 participants, selected from over 90 applicants. Lectures held in the morning were opened to an additional 50 participants from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, who hosted the workshop. The labs were packed, with all seats taken and additional people standing, and many participants staying in the labs for several hours after the 9-hour workshop ended. Dr. Koschinsky comments, "We were inspired by the excitement of participants when they implemented spatial analysis concepts, methods and tools in their individual research projects in the lab sessions."
Project sponsors: The field visit, workshop, and continuing research are funded by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), the GeoDa Center, NCF, and NCBS. For more information about this project, see the Geoda Center's web site:
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A conflict example: Damaged ration shop
The Valparai Plateau within the Anamalai-Parambikulam Elephant Reserve
Participants listening to Daniel Arribas-Bel's lecture at NCBS Lecture Hall |
