Alarming drop in elephant numbers in India, says report

Less than two months ago, on August 12, conservationists globally observed World Elephant Day. On the occasion, TheSnout.in posted a short article about the state of elephants mostly in Asia. Among other things, the report said 3 out of 5 Asian elephants are to be found in India, and the country has about 27,000 of the 45,000 pachyderms estimated to survive across Asia.

Now it appears that the situation of the Indian elephant may have worsened since the last census in 2017. A worrying report published exclusively in The Indian Express newspaper suggests that the country’s elephant count may have dropped by as much as 20% over five years since then, with the biggest fall of over 40% being recorded in central India and the Eastern Ghats.

These regions, incidentally, possess much of India’s mineral resources and are seeing an unbridled drive for “development”, “infrastructure”, and “growth”. At the same time these regions possess a large chunk of India’s virgin forests, which are being splintered and decimated in the pursuit of “development”. Not surprisingly, these are also the regions from where elephant deaths on railway tracks are reported most often. While the railways claim that they have strict speed limits set for sections passing through jungles, conservationists say such limits are observed more in the breach.

A large fall of nearly 18% has also been reported in the Western Ghats region, with most of the fall being recorded in the southern state of Kerala.

The newspaper’s veteran environment and investigative correspondent Jay Mazoomdaar reported that it is on account of this alarming fall in numbers that the country’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change has shelved the release of the elephant census report for 2022-23, though the report is printed and ready for distribution. The official reason for the delay is that this is an “interim” report and the census in the country’s Northeast has been delayed. The final report will now only be released some time in the middle of next year.

The elephant census is conducted every five years by the Wildlife Institute of India based in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, an autonomous body under the environment ministry. The latest census was touted to be the first “scientific” count of elephant numbers in the country. If the reported drop is indeed true, the number of elephants in India may be fewer than 25,000. Clearly, the elephant is not likely to be out of trouble any time soon.