- A synchronised elephant population estimation will be held across South India.
- The field assessment forms a key aspect of the resolutions put forth by the inter-State Coordination Committee, comprising Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, aimed at addressing human-wildlife conflict through joint action and intelligence sharing.
- Andhra Pradesh too will join in the collaborative exercise.
- The heads of the Forest departments of the four States decided methodology.
- Last year’s estimation block count and dung count methods recorded 1,920 and 2,386 elephants, significantly lower than the counts in 2017 (3,322 and 5,706 respectively).
| Methodology for Elephant Census First: Block count sampling method, where forest divisions will be divided into sample blocks ranging from four to six sq. km and involve direct counting. Second: The indirect ‘dung count’ (or line transect) method will be employed, estimating elephant numbers based on dung density and its distance from transects (or straight lines up to 2 km covered on foot for data collection) in elephant habitats.Third: The water hole count method, identifying waterbodies frequented by the elephants. |
The Forest Department, which maintained that its findings in 2023 were more precise than those recorded in the previous surveys, attributed this decline to migration patterns influenced by climate and the 957 km of shared borders among Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Dig Deeper: Read about the new elephant corridor report released by the central government which showed a 40 per cent increase in elephant corridors across 15 elephant range states in India.
