Speaking on the topic, 'The world of elephants,' Sukumar further said modern elephants evolved about six million years ago in Africa and spread to most other continents including Asia. Moving on to India, he said the country was fortunate to be a habitat for about 28,000 elephants in the wild or about 60% of the population of the Asian species. However, he added loss and fragmentation of habitat resulting in intensified conflict between elephants and humans leading to loss of lives on both the sides had placed it on the endangered list.

As a part of the functions, a CSIR programme on Youth for Leadership in Science was organized in which meritorious school students of the region were invited to visit the laboratories of the institute.