A three-day elephant population estimation in Kerala and other south Indian States began on Wednesday.

Project Elephant Director R.K. Srivastava visited the major habitats of elephants, including the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) in Kerala and the Mudumalai and Bandipur tiger reserves in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, on the first day as a part of the census.

Mr. Srivastava, who is also the Inspector General of Forests under the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, told The Hindu that this was the first all-India synchronised elephant population estimation. The survey would cover all forest divisions and protected areas where wild elephants were found in the country. As elephants were migratory animals and crossed over to the adjoining States, there were chances of overestimation or underestimation. But the synchronised count would give an accurate estimate, Mr. Srivastava said.

The census, involving direct and indirect count, will cover elephant habitats spread around 9,670 sq km of the 11,119.3 sq km of forest area of the State.

The direct counting method, which concluded on Wednesday, was based on sightings of elephants. In the indirect method to be held on Thursday, surveyors will follow a dung decay formula for arriving at an estimate.

The third day will be exclusively for collecting information on population structure of the jumbos and will be in open areas where the pachyderms are frequently sighted.

The exercise will see the participation of more than 2,000 field staff in 641 blocks, a block may be six to seven sq km, in the State.

As many as 73 select blocks have been identified in the district for the purpose, including 21 blocks in the WWS and 26 blocks each in the South Wayanad and North Wayanad forest divisions.

Roy P. Thomas, Joint Director, Project elephant, and P. Dhaneshkumar, warden, WWS, accompanied Mr. Srivastava.