India’s elephant population decreases by 10% to 27,312

The environment ministry released the result of the Elephant Census 2017, which pegged the elephant population at 27, 312 across 23 states

New Delhi: The population of India’s national heritage animal— the elephant—has dipped in the country in the last five years. The union environment ministry released the result of the Elephant Census 2017, which pegged their population at 27, 312 across 23 states.

This means the population has decreased by about 3,000, compared to last census in 2012. In 2012, the population of Asian elephant, an endangered and protected species in India, was estimated at around 30,000 (29,391-30,711) and in 2007 it was estimated at about 27,670 (27,657-27,682).

As per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the population of Asian elephants was about 41,410 to 52,345 and of that India alone accounts for nearly 60%.

The population was recorded in the following geographical regions: northern, east-central, northeast, and southern.

Among the states, the highest population was recorded in Karnataka (6,049), followed by Assam (5,719) and Kerala (3,054). As far as regions are concerned, the highest population was in southern region (11,960) followed by the northeast region (10,139), east-central region (3,128) and northern region (2,085).

Techniques like direct count, indirect count, waterhole methods and elephant distribution mapping were used for the estimation.

The ministry, however, claimed that the dip in their population is due to use of scientific and uniform methods, which are more credible. It also pointed out that this is only a preliminary report and would be followed by final report in next few months.

“The present report presents results only from the direct count method. This is ongoing work that would require more inputs from the states, detailed analyses, and interpretation… Compiling more accurate population structure data from photographs would require several months of work,” said the report.

It added that the “the results presented here should therefore be interpreted with caution” and at this “stage, comparisons should not be made between results from the 2017 census and the earlier 2012 census”.

The census was released by union minister for environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC), Dr Harsh Vardhan, on the occasion of World Elephant Day (12 August).

He also launched a nationwide campaign, “Gaj Yatra”, to protect elephants, which will cover 12 elephant range states.

While addressing the gathering, Vardhan urged people to prepare a strategy for a more even distribution of the elephant population in all the states of the country and emphasized that an attempt must be made to bring an end to the man-animal conflict.

He also called for a broader base movement for conservation of elephants.

Experts present at the release of census emphasized the importance of preserving elephant corridors to protect and conserve the species.

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