The environment ministry would soon initiate its five-yearly countrywide counting of elephants. A special focus to identify human-elephants conflict areas will be given in view of rise in such incidents.

Every year, about 400 people and 100 jumbos die in such encounters. The last census was done in 2012 which estimated the count of Asian elephants between 29,391-30,711. The global count of elephants stands at about 41,000 to 52,000.

A senior environment ministry official said that the exercise this time is going to be a mammoth one and experts and stakeholders have been called in for a meeting in the middle of July during which a decision on an encompassing framework will be taken. “The entire process of census will take about a year and the final report should be ready by mid-2017,” the official added.

Early this month the Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi had slammed the environment ministry of having a “lust for killing animals” and accu-sed them of allowing culling of elephants, allegations which were denied by the latter.

As elephant falls under endangered category species, the Centre in 2010 had declared the mammal a national heritage besides enhancing the steps to protect them.

Project elephant, which was started in 1992, was rejuvenated with an additional focus on mitigating human-elephant conflicts that has become a major cause of concern in recent years.

“The work which was done in the past few years on Project elephant that includes studying elephant migration, reviewing their corridors and monitoring their movement will help us in the census this time as in the process several locations habitated by them have been identified. It would help us immensely in carrying out direct counting,” the ministry official added. There are as many as 28 elephant reserves in India at present spanning about 61,830 sq. km.

The ministry official also pointed out talks with neighbouring countries like Bangladesh jointly to protect the endangered animal. “We are in the process of finalizing an agreement with Dhaka through which the animals’ inter-border movement will be unhindered at some identified corridors, which will also be helpful in reducing poaching incidents through international cooperation,” the ministry official added.