India’s wild elephant numbers drop by 18% to 22,446

• India's wild elephant population has been estimated at 22,446, lower than the 2017 figure of 27,312. 

• India is home to more than 60 per cent of the world’s remaining Asian elephants, but their habitats continue to shrink due to encroachment, infrastructure projects and human-elephant conflict.

• The All-India Synchronous Elephant Estimation (SAIEE) 2025 puts India’s elephant population between 18,255 and 26,645, with an average of 22,446.

• This estimate is not directly comparable to earlier figures due to methodological and protocol differences across previous estimation cycles. 

• The government released the report on October 14, nearly four years after the survey began in 2021. 

• The latest results cannot be compared with the 2017 numbers due to a change in methodology.

How was the survey conducted?

• The Wildlife Institute of India, under the aegis of Project Elephant, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, has conducted the country’s first DNA-based population estimation of Asian elephants as part of the All India Synchronized Elephant Estimation–2023. 

• The exercise establishes a new scientific baseline for future monitoring and conservation planning.

• The new count used a three-phase process combining ground surveys, satellite-based mapping and genetic analysis. 

• In the first phase, forest teams used the M-Stripes app to record elephant presence during extensive foot surveys. 

• The second phase assessed habitat quality and human footprint using satellite data. 

• The third phase involved DNA extraction from dung to identify 4,065 unique elephants, with scientists using the mark-recapture model to estimate the overall population.

• Scientists collected 21,056 dung samples from across elephant landscapes and used DNA fingerprinting to identify individual animals, much like identifying humans through their genetic code. 

• The total field effort covered nearly 6.7 lakh km of forest trails and included over 3.1 lakh dung plots.

• This is the first time DNA analysis of dung samples has been carried out. The results will serve as a new baseline for future monitoring and estimation. 

Highlights of the survey:

• Region-wise, the Western Ghats remain the biggest stronghold with 11,934 elephants, followed by the North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra floodplains with 6,559. 

• The Shivalik Hills and Gangetic plains support 2,062 elephants, while Central India and the Eastern Ghats together have 1,891.

• Karnataka continues to host the largest number of elephants at 6,013, followed by Assam (4,159), Tamil Nadu (3,136), Kerala (2,785) and Uttarakhand (1,792).

• Odisha has 912 elephants, while Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand together account for over 650. 

• Smaller populations survive in northeastern states such as Arunachal Pradesh (617), Meghalaya (677), Nagaland (252) and Tripura (153).

• In parts of central and eastern India, states like Madhya Pradesh (97) and Maharashtra (63) have tiny, fragmented herds.

• The once-contiguous elephant population in the Western Ghats is rapidly disconnecting due to changing land use, including expanding commercial plantations (coffee and tea), invasive plants, farmland fencing, human encroachment and mushrooming developmental projects. 

• This fragmentation jeopardises habitat contiguity, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding the connectivity in the landscape to enable free movement between the populations without escalating conflicts. 

• Elephant habitats in the East Central landscape face fragmentation and deterioration from unmitigated mining and linear infrastructure construction, habitat degradation due to invasive plant species and human use. 

• This has prompted long-ranging elephants to venture into historical range, but currently unoccupied areas, resulting in escalating conflicts with humans lacking cultural co-existence experience and posing a threat to elephant populations. 

• Northeast landscape holds the second largest elephant population of India. 

• However, historical exploitation of natural resources since the colonial era, driven by the productive nature of the floodplains and geopolitical considerations, has led to habitat fragmentation and increased conflicts. 

• Currently, elephants are distributed in pockets amid various human land use patterns, including habitation, tea plantations, and mines. 

• It is crucial to ensure corridor connectivity across habitat patches, and better strategies for law enforcement monitoring, for the long-term survival of this species in the landscape. 

• Electrocution and railway collisions cause a significant number of elephant fatalities, while mining and highway construction disrupt habitats, intensifying man-wildlife conflicts. 

• A sustainable resolution involves strengthening wildlife corridors, addressing mining and infrastructure-induced habitat fragmentation, implementing mitigation measures for linear infrastructure as well as power lines and enhancing law enforcement against poaching. 

• It is essential to engage with the community, for sensitisation campaigns in elephant occupied areas and newly colonised places.

• The critical aspect to ensure conservation of Asiatic elephants in the country needs the support of local communities. There is an urgent need to devise policy mechanisms for uniform compensation across areas with elephant presence, prioritising the well-being of these communities. 

• With increasing human-elephant interface, reducing habitat and connectivity, it is important to critically analyse and arrive at future strategies that will not exacerbate existing threats. 

• Strengthening corridors and connectivity, restoration of habitat, improving protection strategies and mitigation of developmental projects are the need of the hour to ensure the well-being of these gentle giants.