Project Elephant

Project Elephant

News: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched a Field Manual for Elephant Conflicts (HEC) in India to guide forest staffers dealing with HEC in major elephant range states.
• The manual has been prepared by the ministry, along with the Wildlife Institute of India (WWI) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF India).
• It contains the detailed best practices of minimizing human providing forest officials/ departments and other stakeholders with guidance towards interventions to help mitigate Human Elephant Conflict,

About:

Elephants in India
• India is home to approximately around 27,000 Asian Elephants, which is the world’s largest population of the species.
• As per Elephant Census (2017), Karnataka h by Assam (5,719) and Kerala (3,054).

Asian Elephants
• There are three subspecies of Asian elephant which are the Indian, Sumatran and Sri Lankan.
• The Indian subspecies has the widest range and accounts f the continent.
• The elephant herd is led by the oldest and largest female member (known as the matriarch). This herd includes the daughters of the matriarch and their offspring.
• Elephants have the longest days (22 months).
• Females between 14 - 45 years may give birth to calves approximately every four years with the mean interbirth intervals increasing to five years by 52 and six years by age 60.

Protection Status
• IUCN Red List Endangered
• Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 – Schedule I
• CITES – Appendix I

Conservation Efforts:
• Plans and programmes to arrest their poachers and killers.
• Declaration and establishment of various elephant reserves across states. For example, Mysuru and Dandeli elephant reserves in Karnataka.
• Cleaning areas from lantana and eupatorium (invasive species) as they prevent the growth of grass for elephants to feed on.
• Making corridors for safe movement of elephants in order to prevent Human-Elephant conflict. Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld the 2011 order of the Madras High Court (HC) on the Nilgiris elephant corridor, affirming the right of passage of the animals and the closure of resorts in the area.
• GajYatra which is a nationwide awareness campaign to celebrate elephants and highlights the necessity of securing elephant corridors.
• The Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) programme, launched in 2003, is an international collaboration that tracks trends in information related to the illegal killing of elephants from across Africa and Asia, to monitor effectiveness of field conservation efforts.
• Project Elephant was launched as centrally sponsored scheme. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change provides financial and technical support to major elephant range states in the country through the project.
• Even mahouts (people who work with, ride and tend to elephants) and their families play an important part in the welfare of elephants.