Captive elephants are facing a host of problems, including various diseases acquired from humans. Contact with human beings has led to an increase in the incidence of tuberculosis. Eight elephants succumbed to the disease in just one year and it is very difficult to detect the disease.

Road accidents involving elephants also have been on the rise. According to wildlife experts, about 10 elephants are injured in road accidents every year.

In Kerala, 80 per cent of the elephants are privately owned and a majority of them are tuskers. The animals are mainly used for festivals and rituals associated with temples. Elephants are also used for lifting and moving timber.

Aged elephants are often neglected. The problem begins when an elephant gets old and cannot work and becomes a financial burden for its owner. Feeding an adult elephant costs at least Rs 300 a day.

There must be at least two mahouts for an elephant. Mahout-elephant conflicts are also on the rise, resulting in violent incidents. Scarcity of trained mahouts is a major reason cited for this.

The highly skewed sex ratio among the wild elephant population has also the potential to endanger the species. Even as experts' debate on the unofficial figure of 1:100 ratio of male-female adult elephants in the various sanctuaries of Kerala, they agree that it is the males who are the favourites.

The reason is as alarming as it is blatant. Male elephants are being selectively poached for their ivory. According to the Delhi-based Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), in the Nilgiris forests, 65 per cent of elephant deaths are caused by ivory poachers. Wildlife experts call for strict enforcement of anti-poaching laws in the sanctuaries.

More than the concern over numbers, today the focus should be on the destruction and isolation of elephant habitats, say the experts. Elephant herds have a habit of traversing over 300 sq km a year.

Fragmented and isolated habitats increase the scope of man-animal conflicts which are reportedly increasing by the day. Reports of people poisoning and electrocuting elephants which destroy their crops are being reported from various places. The elephant-man conflicts in some places have reached alarming levels, with forests giving way to human habitats and agriculture lands and the wild elephants being hit by shortage of food. The animals are compelled to raid crops for food.

Small forest patches measuring a few hundred square kilometres are not sufficient for the wild elephants, which forces them to go beyond their natural limits into areas of human settlement. This also compels the animals to restrict their herd movement. Isolated pockets with no migratory routes for elephants can also affect the animals genetically because of increased in-breeding.