Govt to start counting India’s elephants from next month

Live Mint , Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Correspondent : Mayank Aggarwal
New Delhi: The environment ministry is all set to start a massive countrywide exercise next month to count its elephants, which are India’s national heritage animal. Besides, the government also aims to identify human-elephant conflict prone zones to address the problem which, on average, results in the death of 100 elephants and 400 humans every year.

“A meeting of all stakeholders including state authorities and other experts has been called on 15 July, wherein a broad framework will be finalized for elephant census. It is going to be a massive and very important exercise,” said a senior official of the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC), who did not want to be identified.

However, the final report of the massive counting process is expected to come by only March-April 2017.

Gobal population of the Asian elephant, an endangered species, is about 41,000-52,000 and thus India’s 29,391-30,711 elephants (over 60%) alone form a crucial part of the overall number.

India comes out with an elephant census report every five years. The last report came out in 2012 when their numbers were estimated to be around 29,391-30,711 and in 2007 the population was estimated at 27,657-27,682.

Besides estimation, this time the survey will also focus on direct counting of elephants at many locations, said the MoEFCC official.

“Many locations have become elephant hotspots and thus it is important that we have a clear idea of their population. At such places we would be using direct counting method to ascertain their numbers in addition to indirect method like dung count,” the official added.

India started Project Elephant in 1992 to protect the Asian elephant, its habitat and corridors and address man-elephant conflict. In 2010, the central government declared the elephant a national heritage to scale up measures for its protection.

There are 28 elephant reserves across India at present, covering about 61,830 sq. km. But the man-elephant conflict has been increasing mainly because rapid industrialisation and urbanisation is eating into the animal’s habitat.

As a result, despite all the protection, every year around 400 people and 100 elephants lose their lives on account of human-elephant conflict, besides economic losses sustained by farmers.

As per environment ministry’s data, at least 1,226 humans and 212 elephants have been killed in human-elephant conflict in three years between 2012-13 and 2014-15. Also, nearly Rs.65 crore was spent on compensation paid for the loss of crops and property in two years (2013-2014 and 2014-15).

The environment ministry has been taking a range of measures to control human-elephant conflict. For instance, in January 2015, it decided to follow the African model and erect bee and chilly fences to control conflict.

In May 2015, a panel was set up to study elephant migration, review elephant corridors and consider zoning of elephant corridors.

 
SOURCE : http://www.livemint.com/Politics/CTLa2wDKs3J4zDKEvLRQ1I/Govt-to-start-counting-Indias-elephants-from-next-month.html
 


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