Elephant Reserves in India

 Elephant Reserves

The Indian elephant Elephas maximus occurs in the central and southern Western Ghats, North-east India, eastern India and northern India and in some parts of southern peninsular India. It is included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES). It occurs in 16 of the 28 states in the country and is showing an increasing trend across its distributional range. Its population in 2007 was estimated to be in the range from 27,657 to 27,682, whereas in 2012 the population was estimated to be between 27,785 and 31,368. The state-wise population estimates are given in table below:

 

Elephant (Elephas maximus) population estimates for 2007 and 2012

 

  

Sl.No.	States	Elephant Population
		2007	2012
1	Arunachal Pradesh	1690	1690*
2	Assam	5281	5281*
3	Meghalaya	1811	1811*
4	Nagaland	152	212
5	Tripura	59	59*
6	West Bengal	325-350	325-350*
7	Jharkhand	624	688
8	Odisha	1862	1930
9	Chattisgarh	122	215
10	Uttarakhand	1346	1346*
11	Uttar Pradesh	380	380
12	Tamil Nadu	3867	3726
13	Karnataka	4035	3900-7458**
14	Kerela	6068	6177
15	Andhra Pradesh	28	41
16	Maharshtra	7	4
		27657-27682	27785-31368

 (Source: MoEF, 2013)

 

 

*Census figure as per 2007. The census report of 2012 is still awaited from the States

 **3900-7458 (Confidence Limits)

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PROJECT ELEPHANT was launched by the Government of India in the year 1992 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with following objectives:

1. To protect elephants, their habitat & corridors
2. To address issues of man-animal conflict
3. Welfare of captive elephants

The Project is being mainly implemented in 16 States / UTs , viz. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal.

 

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change provides the financial and technical support to major elephant range states in the country through Project Elephant.