Dia Mirza Instagram – Safe Passage for Elephants, Safe Habitation for Humans: A happy story to share on #WorldElephantDay for people and elephants thanks to @wildlifetrustofindia and its partners working with the #Kerala Forest Department. When a stakeholder survey conducted by WTI found that people living with elephants in conflict in the Thirunelli Kudrakote corridor wished to move out, they initiated a process of community engagement for voluntary relocation. Four villages in the elephant corridor were relocated to new and better houses and the land handed over to the forest department. Livelihood options, government facilities and a better quality of life awaited the community that made way for elephants. The relocation process that started in 2005 ended in 2011 but even as the old village homes were demolished, WTI and the Kerala Forest Department teams recorded elephants returning to the land that was once theirs. A gazette notification in 2015 brought this corridor under legal protection. Today elephants and tigers share this corridor with several other species and this model is a success story worth emulating in other landscapes. India has #101corridors where elephants need #RightOfPassage. #JoinOurHerd and follow @wildlifetrustofindia for more stories of other corridors they have secured and some in process. #WildIndia #GajYatra #ElephantCorridors #SafePassages #ConservationAction #GreenCorridorChampions #AsianElephants