An elephant moving through a forest should have to worry about predators, food and water. It should not have to fear a gun hidden in a village.
But in the forest landscapes of Tamil Nadu, illegal country-made guns had long been part of the problem. Used for hunting, and sometimes to protect crops from wildlife, these weapons posed a serious threat to elephants and other animals.
The situation became especially worrying in the Cauvery North and Cauvery South Wildlife Sanctuaries in 2022. Two elephants were shot dead in the Anchetty and Jawalagiri Forest Ranges within a span of two months.
Instead of responding only with arrests and searches, the Forest Department tried a different approach. It first asked people to give up their illegal guns voluntarily.
The campaign, titled “Ozhippom Thuppakkiyai, Kaapom Yanaigalai” — Eradicate Illegal Country-made Guns, Save Elephants — was launched under the leadership of Tmt. K. Karthikeyani, IFS, a 2018-batch Indian Forest Service officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre. She is currently posted as District Forest Officer, Thanjavur. The campaign was conducted in two phases, first in September 2022 and again in August 2024.
The result was striking. 239 illegal country-made guns were voluntarily surrendered by local residents across the two campaigns.
A PROBLEM ROOTED IN THE LANDSCAPE
The forests of the Cauvery landscape have a long history of hunting and poaching. The problem had also continued in some forest-fringe communities over the years.
Country-made guns were not always held only by organised hunters. In some places, people possessed them to protect agricultural fields from wildlife at night. But the presence of such weapons created another danger. A weapon kept for crop protection could also be used against an elephant.
The immediate trigger for the campaign came after two elephant deaths caused by gunshot injuries in February and March 2022.
For Karthikeyani, however, the problem needed to be addressed beyond individual cases.
“The objective was not merely to apprehend offenders after an elephant had been shot, but to prevent the availability and use of illegal country-made guns while building community ownership of wildlife protection,” she explains.
WHY VOLUNTARY SURRENDER CAME FIRST
An enforcement-only approach could have led to arrests, but it could also have created friction with local communities.
In several cases, when people were arrested for wildlife offences, village residents and local leaders would approach the Forest Department seeking their release. Family circumstances were often cited. There were also assurances that the offence would not happen again.
The Forest Department therefore faced a difficult balance. It had to enforce the law while also retaining the trust of communities living close to wildlife habitats. The campaign offered a middle path.
Residents were given a clear opportunity to surrender illegal country-made guns at Forest Range Offices or through Panchayat Presidents and village heads. They were assured that voluntary surrender during the campaign would not lead to immediate prosecution.
At the same time, the message was equally clear: this was a limited opportunity, not a permanent relaxation of the law.
TAKING THE MESSAGE TO THE VILLAGES
Building trust required more than an announcement.
The campaign was launched through a major press briefing. The message was then carried into forest-fringe villages through newspapers, advertisements, social media, pamphlets, public-address systems and direct outreach.
Motorcycle rallies and door-to-door campaigns helped take the message to remote areas.
Village leaders and Panchayat representatives became an important link between the Forest Department and residents. They explained the purpose of the campaign and encouraged people to come forward.
Confidentiality was another important part of the strategy.
People were assured that those voluntarily surrendering guns would not be arrested as part of the surrender process and that their identities would be kept confidential.
This helped reduce fear and made it easier for residents to approach the authorities.
239 GUNS COME OUT OF HIDING
The first phase, conducted in September 2022, produced a major response. As many as 111 illegal country-made guns were voluntarily surrendered. The Forest Department then repeated the campaign in August 2024. Another 128 guns were surrendered.
Together, the two phases resulted in 239 illegal country-made guns being removed from the landscape. But the campaign did not end with surrender.
The public was informed that systematic searches would follow the voluntary surrender period. Remote habitations, forest enclosures and forest-fringe villages would be searched with trained sniffer dogs.
Any illegal weapon found after the surrender window would invite stringent action under the Arms Act and the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. The strategy was therefore based on two clear stages — trust first, enforcement next.
BEYOND GUNS: BUILDING A SAFER LANDSCAPE
The campaign was part of a wider effort to reduce human-elephant conflict.
Elephants in this landscape frequently move outside forests and enter agricultural and other human-use areas. This makes early information extremely important.
The Forest Department strengthened physical fencing in vulnerable stretches. Digital information boards were installed at important locations. Remote early-warning systems using LED lights were also developed.
Another important initiative was the THADAM WhatsApp group, which created a two-way communication channel between forest officials and local residents.
Forest staff could share information about elephant movement. Residents could also immediately report elephant sightings.
This helped turn villagers from passive observers into active participants in conflict management.
Also Read – IFS Dr C. Zupeni Tsanglai on Nagaland’s Conservation Future: Forests, Wildlife and Communities
USING TECHNOLOGY TO PREVENT CONFLICT
Technology was also brought into the wider strategy. A Command and Control Centre with AI-enabled elephant detection capabilities was established to improve early detection of elephant movement.
The aim was not simply to react after an elephant entered a farm. It was to provide information early enough for people and forest staff to respond safely.
For Karthikeyani, this combination of technology, community participation and enforcement is essential.
“Protecting elephants therefore cannot depend only on enforcement. It requires people living in elephant-use areas to receive timely information, avoid confrontation and actively cooperate with the Forest Department,” she says.
A MEASURABLE CHANGE
The impact of the campaign can also be seen in elephant mortality.
Between April 2017 and September 2022, the four-and-a-half years before the campaign period, five elephants died from gunshot injuries, including two deaths in 2022.
After the campaign began, from November 2022 to June 2026, only one elephant death due to a gunshot injury was recorded.
The decline does not mean that the threat has disappeared completely. One incident still occurred, showing that illegal weapons and old hunting practices cannot be eliminated through a single campaign.
But the numbers indicate a significant reduction in gun-related elephant deaths.
MAKING WILDLIFE PROTECTION A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
The larger lesson from the initiative is that conservation cannot always be achieved through enforcement alone.
In forest-fringe areas, local communities are often the first to see an elephant, hear about a hunting incident or notice suspicious activity. Their cooperation can therefore become an important part of the protection system.
Village leaders and Panchayats can act as bridges between communities and the Forest Department. Residents can help report wildlife movement and suspicious activities. Officials can respond with better information, technology and enforcement.
K. Karthikeyani’s gun-surrender campaign brought these elements together. It began with a simple request: give up the gun and protect the elephant.
By the end of two phases, 239 illegal weapons had been surrendered.
But perhaps the bigger achievement was the message behind those numbers — that protecting wildlife works best when the people living alongside it become part of the solution.
Also Read – From Forests to Wetlands: The Conservation Leadership Transforming Odisha’s Wild Landscapes
