How Does The Media Report On Elephant Human Conflict?
By Marianne de Nazareth
04 September, 2012
Countercurrents.org
We see often an inconsistency in reporting on wildlife in newspapers. On some days we see responsible stories, and on other days, even the same newspaper has an inaccurate or sensational story. The media is not sensitized sufficiently enough on why the man/elephant conflict is occuring and as a result, the stories which come out in the press are mostly one sided, skewed in favour of man and the elephant is demonized. If the media is sufficiently sensitized on the issue, they will write balanced articles which will help control the conflict and not fuel it to escalate still further.
At a recent launch of Dr. R. Sukumar's latest book “The Story of Asia's Elephants” in Bangalore in February 2012 what was noticeable was another lack of media coverage of the event. . The environment and issues on wildlife do not interest most broadsheet media, so attendance by other journalists was thin. Girish Karnad the celebrity chief guest was the only point of interest, considering Professor Sukumar is one of Asia 's foremost authorities on Elephants.
He has made it into a life time of study and he lectures in the Centre for Ecological Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore . As Girish Karnad himself said during his launch speech, “ I came for the launch because I thought I would get a free book since it costs Rs 3500 after discount. After looking at the book and listening to Professor Sukumar I have decided to buy some copies to gift them to family as the book brings out the fact that elephant is so much part of our Indian religious culture and we need future generations to remember that.”
In response to a question posed by a member of the audience, during the Question and Answer session- “How does the media cover the issue of human/elephant conflict?', Professor Sukumar replied very brusquely and briefly, ‘the media needs to educate itself on the issue and write with care.” This is a position which most scientists who are interviewed by the media take. They feel the media views everything scientific with a flippant plan to sensationalise it to make a ‘good' story. The media is a wonderful conduit to spread information about the (Elephas maximus indicus) but the Professor felt that the media only looked at the man-elephant conflict in terms of it attracting attention and readers and would only write if there was death involved, preferably inflicted by the elephant on man.
“ The Elephas maximus indicus elephant is one of three recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, and native to mainland Asia ,” said the professor. “The species is pre-eminently threatened by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation of elephant habitat with man's expanding his settlement over the years.” Since 1986 the Elephas maximus has been listed as endangered by IUCN as the population has declined drastically by 50% over the last three generations. This is estimated to be only over the last 60–75 years..
Reading a Karnataka State of Environment report written way back in 1984 – 85 by Professor Sukumar, the report begins, “Elephants invade city” screamed newspaper headlines on 29th January 1985 . A herd of 9 elephants from the Bannarghatta forests, had traversed almost 15 acres of cultivation during the night and finally entered an engineering college in the surburbs of Bangalore . The report said this was not something new and could date back to Gaja-shastras of the 5-6th century BC and other ancient literature. It dates back to the first human settlement in elephant habitation. So what the scientists are saying is, man is the cause of the conflict as we have grown in numbers and settled in what was originally elephant habitation.
How many of us journalists have ever thought of the human elephant conflict in those terms? The fact that the areas which the elephant supposedly raid, were originally part of their habitation and their migration route. It is us man who has intruded and that is why they attack finding us in what was their habitat. We do not; we consider man being the only species we should concern ourselves about and if there is conflict and death, that makes a good story as it fits our news values of negativity perfectly.
Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are smaller than their African savannah relatives (Loxodonta africana). The ears are smaller and the back is more rounded. One of the characteristic features of an elephant are the modified incisor teeth which are known as tusks for which they are killed by man to increase his ivory trade. Elephants support their stocky body on stout, pillar-like legs, and the nose and upper lip are joined and elongated into a trunk. The trunk provides a wide variety of functions from feeding, vocalisation, bathing and fighting. The thick, wrinkly skin covering the body is a greyish-brown colour and very dry and elephants spray wet mud or water on it to keep insects away to keep it flexible.
Elephants eat between 149 and 169 kg (330-375 lb.) of vegetation daily. Sixteen to eighteen hours, or nearly 80% of an elephant's day is spent feeding. Elephants consume grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots.Tree bark is a favourite food source for elephants. It contains calcium and roughage, which aids digestion. Tusks are used to carve into the trunk and tear off strips of bark and this helps in seed propogation as well.
The issue causing the conflict
India 's elephants are squeezed for living space, stressed by development, and growing increasingly violent. With a booming population humans are the intruders. This paper is about the spreading conflict between one of the world's last great elephant populations and the people who share their habitat. And my focus is on the importance of how the media portrays this conflict.
Talking to Professor (Dr) Sukumar, of the Centre for Ecological Sciences
Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore who is part of the task force insituted by the government of Karnataka to advise the government on how to handle the conflict says, “ I do know that the number of human deaths due to elephants in India has increased substantially in recent years and has crossed 400 people in 2010. I suspect this would also be the case in 2011.”
In India alone, elephant-human conflict results in about 300 human and 200 elephant deaths each year due to poaching, crop protection and any number of other accidents, including vehicle-elephant collisions. (Gubbi)
Man has reduced & altered elephant's natural habitat. In South India khedda operations were held right upto 1971. In the ‘70's the settlement of Tibetan refugees in Kollegal which was elephant habitat caused a lot of stress to the animal. The high impact of monoculture plantations-Teak, Silver Oak and Eucalyptus, has not been noted in terms of the conflict as the undergrowth in these ‘forests' are useless weeds which the elephants cannot eat.
News Values
News Values dictate the reasons for which certain stories are selected over others to be published. With regard to how the stories about human elephant conflict become news, Galtung and Ruge in their study of news values first published in 1965 presented twelve factors by which news is selected. They called them news values and the human elephant conflict matches the first two values of frequency and threshold. Frequency in the number of conflict situations occuring and the fact that the conflict results in death and passes a threshold of the number of deaths, the greater is the impact of the story and the likelihood of it being selected. “These factors if present, have certain effects among the audience” (Galtung and Ruge,1965, pp84-85). The stories of human elephant conflict are selected by the media because they fall under the category of negative news where there is tragedy, loss, death, attacks, and these according to Glatung and Ruge is one of the twelve news values they have listed. News falling under the negative category always has a greater chance to be published than positive news items . With regard to selection the scientist has no issues, the problem Professor Sukumar had with journalists was of sensationalization and taking sides, and not writing an objective story.
Selected recently published articles in print broadsheet national dailies:
With a view to checking the language used by reporters in various recent stories published a cross section has been selected from - in The Times of India, India's foremost national daily, The Hindu which has a stronghold of erudite readers in the South of India, The Deccan Herald which is published out of Bangalore, the Deccan Chronicle which is published out of Hyderabad. Add
Sensationalizing the issue :
Immediately one is struck by the lack of objectivity and loss of accuracy in terms of the language that has been used to describe the incident mentioned in TOI - “Forest staff, police drive herd of elephants into forests H M Aravind, TNN | Feb 13, 2012, MYSORE :
The elephants have been described as ‘raiders' who ‘terrorized' the villagers. There is no mention if the area where they were found is part of their migratory path or their original feeding grounds. The story is skewed totally in favour of the humans species.
In the story published Elephant runs amok: The Hindu KOTTAYAM, February 19, 2012 , again strong terminology like ‘runs amok' ‘attacked him' ‘tantrums' is used demonizing the elephant and sensationalising the story. There is no objectivity in the report, after all maybe the mahout hurt the animal to get it to work which resulted in the ‘tantrums'. Elephants are wild animals, they are not meant to work for humans and so the question of tantrums does not arise.
Again in the Deccan Chronicle Tusker scare as festival season sets in January 30, 2012 Deccan Chronicle C Thiruvananthapuram the words ‘Violent' and ‘rampage' appear, demonizing the animal. However the reporter does mention that the elephant was overworked.
Best practices:
However there are stories written by environmentalists and more erudite journalists which are balanced and make less sensational reading- “Forest dept mulls to put up warning signs on Mysore highway A Subburaj, TNN | Jan 29, 2012, ERODE
Here the journalist writes a balanced story on how the government has plans to put up signs to control speeding vehicles that kill elephants crossing the road.
“ Will the elephant survive conflict? Sanjay Gubbi, Hassan, Dec 14, DHNS :
In this story written by environmentalist Sanjay Gubbi he takes a infotainment angle by starting with a anecdote to get the readers attention which can be helpful to make a balanced and interesting story filled with actual facts.
In the story 'Weed invasion causing man-elephant conflict' Subhash Chandra NS, Bangalore , Sep 20, DHNS : there are researched reasons as to why the man elephant conflict is escalating.
So in conclusion from the stories that have appeared in the 2011- 2012 news reports, it can be noted that the capacity of the journalist to deal with the issue with depth is missing. The story is sketchy and the angle of demonization is played up. Words like ‘rampage' ‘vandalized' ‘runs amok' ‘attacked him' ‘tantrums' are used which should be avoided when writing about the conflict. The popular misconception that elephants are domesticated enough to work for man appears constantly in the reports. The focus on mitigation in the human-elephant conflict is missing and there is an inconsistency in reportage with some writing with erudition and some dramatizing the conflict.
Nowhere is the point of co-existence, which is an important aspect of mitigation of the conflict focussed upon. In India elephants are part of human tradition and heritage going back into centuries of history, but unfortunately this point where there should be respect for the animal, is lost in media coverage. The media needs sensitization courses in order to write balanced stories with regard to human-elephant conflict and this is extremely important, as it is through the power of the published word that the move towards mitigation and co-existance which is the ultimate solution, can happen.
( The writer is a freelance journalist and registered PhD scholar at the MKU University , Madurai )
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