Misbehaving elephants in northeastern India are leaving their habitats and wreaking havoc. Wandering elephants have destroyed homes, decimated crops, and trampled people.
Wildlife experts are trying a somewhat unconventional method to keep elephants away from villages near the elephant habitats: the world’s hottest chili. Fences around villages and fields are smeared with automobile grease and bhut jolokia, the ghost chili. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the ghost chili is the world’s hottest chili pepper.
Conservationists have also used chili smoke bombs to keep the elephants away from residential and growing areas. Dried chili and straw lit on fire make a cloud of strong-smelling smoke that also works to keep the elephants away. A spokesperson from the Assam Haathi (Elephant) Project pointed out that the elephants would not try to eat the spicy chili. The chili smoke and chili-laden fences will repel the elephants without harming them.
Northeastern India has the world’s largest population of wild Asiatic elephants. More than five thousand wild Asiatic elephants live just in Assam. Villagers in Assam have been under attack from these wild elephants for nearly two decades. More than six hundred villagers have been killed by wild elephants. When the elephants feel that human settlements are encroaching on their territories, they attack.
In other areas with similar wild elephant problems, villagers have resorted to violence. Residents of Sonitpur district poisoned nineteen wild elephants in 2001. The elephants had ruined crops and homes.
Wildlife wardens and conservation experts have been working on measures to keep the wild elephants out of residential areas — and keep everyone safe. The super-hot chili may be a great solution. So far, the chili smoke bombs and chili-laden fences have been successful in keeping wild elephants away from human settlements. If the elephants ever acquire a taste for really hot peppers, the conservationists will have to come up with a new alternative.