• World Elephant Day is celebrated on August 12. The primary aim of World Elephant Day is to create awareness on elephant conservation, and to share knowledge and positive solutions for the better protection and management of wild and captive elephants.

• Union Minister Bhupender Yadav released the population estimation protocol to be adopted in the exercise to be taken up for the all India elephant and tiger population estimation in 2022. For the first time, the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) is converging elephant and tiger population estimation.

• Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are listed as “Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. 

• There are three subspecies of Asian elephants. The Sri Lankan Elephants are seen in Sri Lanka. The Mainland Asian elephant or the Indian elephant are seen in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam. The Sumatran elephant resides in Sumatra.

• According to the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, India is home to more than 60 per cent of the total Asian elephant population in the world.

Elephants in India

• The Asian Elephant has been included in Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. 

• Elephant was declared as the Natural Heritage Animal of India in 2010.

• The highest population of elephants is recorded in Karnataka, followed by Assam.

• More than 500 people and 100 elephants die every year due to conflict with each other.

Project Elephant

Project Elephant (PE) was launched by the government in 1992 as a centrally sponsored scheme with the following objectives: 

• To protect elephants, their habitat and corridors.

• To address issues of man-elephant conflict.

• Welfare of domesticated elephants.

• India has the largest number of wild Asian Elephants, estimated at 29,964 according to the 2017 census by Project Elephant.

• At present, the Project is being implemented in 22 states/UTs.

• India has approximately 2,675 captive elephants.

• There are 30 notified elephant reserves in the country.

• Despite conservation measures, the survival of the Asian Elephant continues to be threatened by fragmentation and degradation of natural habitat, poaching for ivory and human-elephant conflict. 

• The ministry is gearing up for the population estimation of the species for 2022 using sound scientific methods to recognise and take effective actions against the site specific threats that loom over the existence of the mega herbivore.

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