The elephant is the largest land mammal and therefore, requires large amount of food to nourish themselves. A full grown female elephant may eat upto 240 kg of fresh plant material over an 18 hour day! Elephants move continuously as they feed, allowing the vegetation behind them to regenerate in a natural cycle. They are, hence, important flagship species, specially acting as the seed dispersers. They eat various types of fruits and other plant matter, digest what they can, and then drop the seeds out several hours (and often several kilometers) away from their original location. The seeds then sprout and grow, helping to keep the populations of forest plants healthy.

That natural cycle gets disturbed when the passage of elephants linking one habitat to another gets disrupted, forcing them to forage in the same area, which also decimates local vegetation. Relatively narrow, linear patches of vegetation used by the elephants, also called “elephant corridors”, form vital natural habitat linkages between larger forest patches and allow elephants to move between secure areas freely, also reducing conflict with humans. Without this Right of Passage, elephants as the mega-gardeners or architects of the forest cannot do their job and the over-all ecological balance of the landscape gets affected with many species of plants unable to sustain healthy populations, also having a spiralling effect on the water ecosystem in the area. These elephant corridors are also critical for several other species, from our National Animal, the Royal Bengal Tiger, to beetles who rely on elephant dung for their primary abode and nourishment.

Working in partnership with Project Elephant, other NGOs and State Forest Departments, WTI has mapped 101 corridors across India and has already secured six corridors in Kerala, Karnataka, Meghalaya and Uttarakhand.

It is important for a densely populated country like India to give careful thought to the manner in which land is secured for creating wildlife passages.
Over the years, WTI has found four approaches to be relevant for securing and protecting elephant corridors in the country. These models have been adopted in the conservation plans. The four models include:
1. The Public Initiative model: Creating empowered local stakeholders through the Green Corridor Champions initiative to ensure that each and every corridor is monitored in perpetuity; engaging with communities through public campaigns and spot interventions.
2. The Government Securement Model: Focussing on policy advocacy and providing central and state government agencies with technical assistance and ‘soft hands’ for the securing of key corridors through official schemes for purchase and rehabilitation.
3. The Private Purchase Model: Directly purchasing land, voluntarily rehabilitating communities, and transferring the purchased land to the state forest department for legal protection (a successfully implemented model is in place).
4. The Community Securement Model: Community owned lands are set aside through easements or bilateral bene t-sharing models; working with community based organisations (CBOs), governments and other stakeholders to ensure community-based protection of corridors.

Learn More Here : http://www.wti.org.in/projects/right-of-passage/