“All obstacles, whatever they may be, will be rooted out by worshipping Ganesh,” promises an ancient Hindu scripture. Every year when Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated people from all sections of the society in India chant ‘Ganpati Bappa Moriya’ with full reverence. Praying to the deity with great belief for knowledge, peace, prosperity and harmonious co-existence. Ganesha is the remover of all obstacles for humans in all conditions!

The Ganesha, also called Ganapati, elephant-headed god of beginnings. Indeed all-Hindu rituals offer their first reverence to Ganesha unequivocally across the world.  His name means both “Lord of the People” (gana means the common people) and “Lord of the Ganas” (Ganesha is the chief of the ganas, the goblin hosts of Shiva).

The symbolism of Ganesha, elephants is revered and sought blessings everywhere. It is perceived to be the living incarnation of Ganesha. Thus, elephants are tolerated from being killed, even when they bring destruction to people and property. Tolerance towards elephants comes from their inner belief and strength towards the pot-bellied deity.

That perception and belief has changed in recent years. Today is Ganesha Chturthi and is a day to reflect how we have reduced that symbolism to pray to a deity for a day, but can’t co-exist through the rest of the time. The compelling award-winning documentary, Elephants in the Coffee, reflects on how the society that tolerated to its wild ways and at times destroying livelihood/property etc. has now changed its principle.

Society outside the boundaries of the national park has no tolerance to the elephants and is adapting ways to kill elephants. Throughout the elephant habitat zones, agricultural conflicts with elephants are forcing rural residents to electrocute the animals with high-tension wires or shoot them with guns, poison-tipped arrows. In some places, rice wine, an elephant favorite laced with insecticides is a means adapted by humans. Poachers and human-induced accidents add to the toll. If not able to kill through forceful measures, elephants are captured, tortured and made submissive in temporary camps. Much of their life, captive elephants have no role in the human society, other than being cared by two humans, a mahout and a Kavadi.    

Elephants do not have such principles to kill and cause problem to humans. Their original land and corridors are taken away and their natural habitats are shrinking. They come in contact by virtue of crossing over to their perceived land. It is time we give a thought towards peaceful co-existence than confrontational approach. Nearly a fifth of the world's human population lives within the range of the Asian elephant; how long can we ever coexist?

If not, what is the future of conservation of elephants? Would we allow our consciousness to the glorious celebration through a soulless deity and seek blessings and marvel at its supreme power? Elephants today carry a heavy load on their head and shoulders just to stay outside the intolerant means adapted by us. 

We should not limit our co-existence only to give space in our homes and offer worship to an invisible god, the still deity but learn new ways in which we can share and care towards the living god, the elephants. We cannot let go of the age-old traditions and acceptance for our greed of expansion. 

As we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi, it is time we seek its divine blessings for co-existence and be more tolerant to each other. A world without elephants, is a sad and unimaginable.  
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  Bhaskar sent me this picture today and I opened it during break at the Black Cat Picture Show, where we are showing "Elephants in the Coffee."
  It is an extremely disturbing photo of elephants running from fire. I don't know yet where the photo came from, and Bhaskar is working to find out more even as I write this.
  But it illustrates the changing attitude toward elephants that troubles me. As we note in our documentary, the elephant was once a god in India, but increasingly people call it a menace. Farmers try to drive elephants from their fields. People try to drive elephants from their streets and their villages.
   But when one person drives off an elephant, the elephant conflict doesn't end -- it merely moves. This is problem India faces in every state in which elephants exist.
  As Ananda Banerjee writes in "Crocodile tears for the elephant," "A majority of elephants, in fact, are now found outside protected areas such as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries." Elephants cannot be fenced inside some national park. If the world is to have Asian elephants, man must learn to co-exist with these incredible creatures. 
  In this article, there is also disturbing evidence that elephant populations are again declining. The most recent elephant census says India has only 27,000 elephants, down from 30,000 in 2012. The government claims that the number does not reflect a true reduction in population and that, instead, it reflects better methods of counting. 
  However, this should be warning. As Bannerjee writes, "There are very few research studies on the ecology and social dimension of human-elephant (or other wildlife) relationships in areas outside forests."
   The world needs to study and address issues of human-elephant interaction outside the national forests because that is now where most elephants live. We cannot rely on firecrackers to solve this issue.

  Please take a few minutes to listen to D.K. Bhaskar talk about "Elephants in the Coffee" on radio station KCUR in Kansas City.
  Here is the link. 
  The interview starts about 26 minutes into the hour. Bhaskar does a great job of explaining why we made the film and why is is important.
  And thanks to KCUR for helping us tell this important story.

​‘Elephants in the Coffee’ Premieres August 30 at ABAC
 
   TIFTON--A one-hour documentary titled “Elephants in the Coffee,” produced by  Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Associate Professor of Journalism Thomas Grant and his students, will premiere on Aug. 30 at 6 p.m. in Howard Auditorium on the ABAC campus.  This event is free and open to the public.

  The documentary shows how the expansion of coffee plantations in Southern India led to conflicts between humans and elephants. With hundreds of people and dozens of elephants dying each year, the film explores the question of whether farmers can co-exist with this endangered animal.

  Grant first became aware of the issue on a CLIC Abroad trip to India. Created by his friend, D.K. Bhaskar, CLIC Abroad is a non-profit group dedicated to using photography to connect students from America and India.  Grant has been a part of the program since 2011.

  “During a CLIC Aboard trip in 2012, we took some students back to India, and we saw forest department elephant camps at the Nagarhole National Park,” said Grant.  “At the time, there were 11 captive elephants there tended by mahouts (elephant keepers) from the Jenu Kuruba tribe.  When I returned in 2014 with more ABAC students, there were 35 elephants in the camp.  The question arose, why are there so many more captive elephants?”

  Grant got his answer later that week when he watched the mahouts and government workers force two more freshly-captured wild elephants into giant wooden cages.  These elephants were accused of killing people in a nearby agricultural area.

  “We learned that due to the expansion of farming, particularly coffee plantations, led to more and more conflicts between endangered elephants and humans,” said Grant.  “More than 100 people are killed by elephants each year in India.  Because the pachyderms are protected by law they cannot be killed so the government’s solution has been to capture and force them into submission by tribal mahouts hired by the Indian government.  This is what inspired the documentary.”
 
  Grant and his team of students spoke to farmers of large and small coffee estates, including Tata Plantation, the largest coffee farming operation in India that has a joint agreement with Starbucks.  Biologist Karthic Krishnan provided video of elephants living inside the coffee plantations of Tata and tracks the animal on the estates. Grant and the ABAC students also spoke with officers of the forest department, including former game warden K.M. Chinnappa, who has been working to protect elephants for more than 50 years; scientists and professors who study the human-elephant conflict; and veterinarians and mahouts who manage the captive animals.
 
​   The earliest video in the documentary was shot in 2012 but the bulk of the footage was done in 2014 and 2015 during two study abroad trips to India.  A total of 10 ABAC students were heavily involved in the project from the conception to the shooting of the video.  Their interviews offer the Western viewpoint of the issue.  Five students from the Ponnampet Forestry College in southern India served as translators for the ABAC group.

“The rough cut of the documentary was completed in summer of 2016, and thanks to a faculty enrichment grant from the ABAC Foundation in the fall of 2016, I was able to complete the final cut during the spring of 2017,” said Grant.

  Since its initial viewing, “Elephants in the Coffee” has won Best Documentary at the Doc Sunback Film Festival in Kansas.  On Aug. 29, the film will be shown at Georgia Southwestern College.  The documentary will also be shown in Washington, D.C. in September, the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in New York City this October, and has been selected by film festivals in Russia, India, Lithuania, Estonia, Italy, Canada, and the United States.  Presently, Grant is trying to get wider distribution, focusing on showings at colleges and high schools, as well as broadcast, cable or video on demand sources.

  Grant believes that elephants and farmers can co-exist, and hopes that some farmers, like those at the Tata estates, try to make that happen. 
“Conflicts between wildlife and agriculture seldom have quick and easy solutions,” said Grant.  “Our coffee comes from a complex ecosystem and resolving these issues will require concerted effort from inside India, and from abroad. We believe Starbucks, which is committed to environmentally sound practices, could take a leading role is trying to develop elephant-safe coffee.” 

  Toward that end, Grant is working with Dr. Jason Scott in the Forestry and Wildlife Department at ABAC to seek and find better ways to track elephants and reduce conflicts. And with CLIC Abroad, Grant is working toward creating an elephant education center near the national park in India that could help work toward co-existence.
​
  “We love elephants, and we love coffee,” said Grant.  “The world should be big enough to sustain both.  But right now, Asian elephants are in a battle for survival because of these conflicts with agriculture.  And few people in the Western world are even aware of the problem.  We can’t solve the problem. But we can throw some light on it. When we see something terrible happening, as it is right now on the coffee plantations of India, we have a duty to do what we can.”

  Radio station KCUR says "Elephants in the Coffee" shows the crucial connection between coffee and the future of elephants.
  The article posted on their website was written by Donnelly College professor Melissa Lenos. 
  "Elephants in the Coffee" will show at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 12, at the Olathe Indian Creek Library, 13511 S Mur-Len Road, Ste. 129, Olathe, Kansas. Filmmaker D.K. Bhaskar will give a talk after the screening. 

  The story of Tenzing Bodosa of Assam, India, is proof that farms can be productive, profitable and friendly to elephants.
  As reported in The Better India, his farm has been certified as the world's first elephant-friendly tea farm. The write:
  "The most interesting part of his farm is the buffer zone, which is the area at the end of his farm from where the jungle begins at the Bhutan border. He has left that part of the farm as is. He does not cut down the trees or start a fire there, instead he has planted bamboo trees on which the wild elephants feed. He has also not put any barriers in and around his plantation, so that the wild animals from the jungle can freely move in his farm.
  "At times,  you can see at least 70-80 wild elephants in his farm."
  Tenzing grows organically, and grows multiple crops on the land. He calls it "intercropping."
  "According to Tenzing, tea companies mislead farmers to grow only tea on their farms. Indian climate is suitable for growing anything from apples to strawberries and from tea to rice, but the farmers don’t intercrop. This is because when you use chemicals, it is difficult to grow consumable fruits in the same farm and the soil slowly becomes infertile, as microorganisms also die due to pesticides. But if farmers grow organically, then all the seasonal fruits, vegetables and even paddy can be grown in the same tea farm. This makes the farmers self sufficient. Moreover, growing one’s own food will ensure that there is enough food for everyone and farmers can get a chance to export their produce for bigger benefits. He also urges the urban population to learn the basics of farming and grow as much they can on their rooftops or balconies. This will increase the food security of the nation and thus, the government will help the farmers to export too. Also, it’s only if one grows organically will the entire ecosystem get back into place."
   Coffee farmers in south India also intercrop. But in Coorg, where we shot our film "Elephants in the Coffee," the farmers seem obsessed with driving elephants out of their farms. Perhaps they could talk to Tenzing to see if a new approach might work for both farmer and elephant.

  Imagine living in a nation where wild animals kill a person every day. According to reports from the environment ministry in India, that's what is happening there now. Elephants and tigers kill someone in India, on average, every day.
   Elephants killed many more people than tigers, 1052 people in a little over 1100 days. And according to officials, the root cause of those deaths wa human encroachment into animal territory.
   Of course, elephants and tigers are being killed, too. Nearly 350 tigers and 100 elephants were killed in that same time frame, according to ministry reports. They blame poachers. However, as we have reported in "Elephants in the Coffee," conflicts over agriculture has become the primary threat to elephants.
   You may think of the human encroachment into elephant territory as the construction of homes and villages in elephant migration paths. That is certainly the most dramatic scene, as reported in this story.  In that case, a village had to be relocated because it was directly in the path of elephants.
   But the greater encroachment is that of agriculture. As one farmer told us in our film, much of that area of Coorg in southern India was barren land until the past 20 or 30 years. Then the growth of coffee plantations transformed that land. But to the elephants, it still seemed to be forest.
   Many think that elephants can be simply fenced away from human areas. Here's a plan in Odisha to use beehive fencing: "The design of beehive fencing incorporates locally constructed beehives, which are strung intermittently between wooden poles to compose a primitive fence. When elephants bump into the fence and disturb the associated hives, it forces the bees to come out and sound around elephants. As a result, the elephants flee from that area."
   Here was a plan to use hot peppers to fence out elephants.  "Conservationists working on the experimental project in Assam state said they have put up jute fences made of strong vegetable fiber and smeared them with automobile grease and bhut jolokia chilies. These peppers, also known as ghost chilies, have been certified as the world's hottest by the Guinness Book of World Records."
    Here is a plan to use a pvc gun to scare off elephants: "H. Madhusudhanam, a local conservationist in Gudalur, says that the “gun” uses calcium carbide and water, which when mixed together inside the contraption, produces acetylene acid and hydrogen gas. A small gas lighter, which acts as a trigger, is used to light the gas which produces a loud bang."
    But even if they work, neither bees, nor hot peppers, nor loud noises, nor even steel rail fences solve the real problem. They merely divert the elephant conflicts, much like seawalls  focus the power of the ocean to a point further down the shore. Bees and pvc pop-guns scare the elephants onto someone else's property, but the do not end the confrontations.
    India's 30,000 wild elephants need room to roam, and they will continually bump up against humans. The real question is not how can we stop elephants, but how can we live with them?