Elephant Corridors

India lost 528 elephants in the last five years due to unnatural causes, including poaching, poisoning, electrocution, and train accidents, the government informed Parliament on Monday. In response to a question by BJP MPs Jayanta Kumar Roy and Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, Union Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh told the Lok Sabha that 392 elephants died from electrocution and 73 were killed in train accidents during this period. Fifty elephants were killed by poachers and 13 succumbed to poisoning, he said. According to the government data tabled in the Lok Sabha, 71 elephants died due to electrocution in Odisha, 55 in Assam, 52 in Karnataka, 49 in Tamil Nadu, 32 in Chhattisgarh, 30 in Jharkhand, and 29 in Kerala. Assam and Odisha recorded 22 and 16 elephant deaths in train accidents. Poachers killed 17 pachyderms in Odisha, 14 in Meghalaya, and 10 in Tamil Nadu. Ten elephants were poisoned in Assam, two in Chhattisgarh, and one in West Bengal. According to the

Human-elephant conflicts resulted in 2,853 human deaths during the past five years, with the number of fatalities reaching a five-year high of 628 in 2023, according to government data. Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh on Thursday said "elephants caused" 587 human deaths in 2019, 471 in 2020, 557 in 2021, 610 in 2022 and 628 in 2023. The data revealed that Odisha recorded 624 such deaths during this period, followed by Jharkhand with 474, West Bengal with 436, Assam with 383, Chhattisgarh with 303, Tamil Nadu with 256, Karnataka with 160 and Kerala with 124. The minister said the management of wildlife habitats was primarily the responsibility of state governments and Union Territory administrations and that the central government provided financial and technical support under the centrally sponsored Project Tiger & Elephant scheme for the protection of animals, their habitats and corridors, addressing ...

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has convened an urgent meeting on March 14 to discuss the issue of increasing occurrences of human-animal conflict in the state, Forest Minister AK Saseendran said on Wednesday. Saseendran said that wild animals, including elephants, cannot be stopped from coming out of the forests by only implementing the preventive measures being followed currently. "We also need to take steps to keep the animals inside the forests in tune with the changes in human settlements," he told reporters. The minister said that in the meeting to be held tomorrow, besides strengthening the preventive measures, he also expects that directions would be issued to explore ideas to ensure that wild animals stay inside forests. His statement came in response to reporters' queries about unconfirmed reports of elephants entering inhabited areas in Munnar area of Idukki district today morning. When asked about an elephant found in a weak condition in Athirappilly area of ...

Apart from imparting the GPS training, the Aaranyak experts also prepared Block Maps which will be helpful for elephant population estimation

The elephant, which is around 37 years old, was darted by a team of forest officials led by Chief Veterinary surgeon of Kerala forest department, Dr. Arun Zachariah on Saturday

President Droupadi Murmu Friday urged people to treat elephants with compassion and keep elephant corridors free from obstructions to facilitate their easy movement. If a deep analysis of the human-elephant conflict (HEC) is carried out, it is evident that there are obstructions along their natural corridors and humans are responsible for this, Murmu said. Elephants are wise and kind animals, and people should treat them with compassion, the President said at the inauguration of the 'Gaj Utsav-2023' here on the second day of her Assam visit. Dealing with HEC is both the aim and challenge of Project Elephant', which is completing 30 years, she said. It is our duty to conserve elephant corridors as these can serve as carbon sink and help people tackle the challenges of climate change, Murmu said, as she called upon all stakeholders to join hands to deal with the situation. The elephant is our national heritage animal and by protecting it, we are protecting our national heritage, the

Even as the government has increased the focus on conservation of wildlife, instances of human-animal conflict have resulted in loss of life of both humans and animals over the years

In order to check the rising incidents of human-elephant conflict (HEC), West Bengal has launched a unique human-driven initiative, named "Gajamitra (Friends of Elephants)"

With the degradation of forests and shrinking of habitats, human-elephant conflicts are rising in the northeastern states, mainly in Assam and Tripura, with 971 people being killed by wild elephants

There are 30 elephant reserves across India encompassing an area of 55,000 sq km. But 80 per cent of the elephants are outside the protected areas.

The Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the Madras High Court's 2011 decision asking resort owners

Prakriti Srivastava discusses a host of challenges faced by those who want to conserve wildlife

District collector sealed unauthorised holiday resorts in an elephant corridor on the court's orders.