Functional Role of Elephants in Maintaining Forest Ecosystem and Biodiversity: Lessons from Northwestern Elephant Range in India
Kanchan Puri, Vishant Yadav, Ritesh Joshi
Asian Journal of Environment & Ecology · pp. 1–8 · Published 18 May 2019
10.9734/ajee/2019/v9i230091Abstract
This article focuses on the functional role of Asian elephant in maintaining forest ecosystem and biodiversity. Elephant performs different activities in forest which greatly influence ecosystem processes, plant communities and trophic structure of the community. Elephants have cascading effects in altering the vegetation regeneration and providing habitat, water and nutrients to other animals. Besides, elephants also have affirmative effects in controlling illegal poaching, promoting ecotourism and act as an indicator species to know about natural calamities. The information compiled in the present note is based on the literature available and field experience gained in the Rajaji National Park, India. Since elephants play a crucial role in ecological trajectories of ecological communities, developing a rigorous framework to evaluate the qualitative influence made by the elephants in ecosystem would be of paramount importance.
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