Project Elephant of India

Project Elephant of India

Indian Elephant is an endangered species and it is protected under the prestigious Project Elephant programme. This project is run by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. India is home to 55% of the Asian elephant population.The South Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu are home to nearly 44% of the elephants in India. Out of these, the state of Karnataka alone is home to 22% of the elephants in India.The North-eastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Tripura along with West Bengal account for 30% of the elephants.

Project Elephant was launched in 1992 by the Government of India Ministry of Environment and Forests to provide financial and technical support to wildlife management efforts by states for their free-ranging populations of wild Asian Elephants. The project aims to ensure the long-term survival to the populations of elephants in their natural habitats by protecting the elephants, their habitats and migration corridors. Other goals of Project Elephant are supporting the research of the ecology and management of elephants, creating awareness of conservation among local people, providing improved veterinary care for captive elephants.

The government of India launched the prestigious “Project Elephant” in the year 1992. Under this project, The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change provides financial and technical assistance to the states with major elephant population in the country.

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

Project Elephant is a centrally sponsored project with the following main objectives:

1. Protecting elephants, their habitat & corridors
2. Addressing issues of animal-man conflict
3. Safeguarding the welfare of captive elephants

The following are the main activities assumed under Project Elephant:

1. Restoration of already existing natural habitats and migratory paths for elephants
2. Development of scientific and planned management strategies for conservation of habitats and population of Wild Asiatic elephants in India
3. Promoting measures for the moderation of elephant- man conflict in vital habitats
4. Controlling human and domestic stock activities in critical elephant habitats
5. Measures for the protection of Wild elephants from poachers
6. Emphasis on Elephant research and management
7. Promotion of public education and awareness programmes
8. Development of Veterinary doctors and elephant care facilities
9. Establishment of Elephant Rehabilitation/Rescue Centres

The wild Elephant population

The all-India enumeration of the wild population of elephants is carried out every five years. The comparative figures as below for the states shows that the estimated population of wild elephants in the country has increased to around 30,000 in 2012 as compared to 27,657 in 2007. Whereas it decreased to 27,312 in the year 2017, with Karnataka reporting the highest population at 6049, followed by Assam at 5719. This decrease is attributed to the differences in the counting methods.

Elephant Reserves

Elephant reserves are conservation Areas that are areas of notable environmental or historical importance which is protected by law against undesirable changes. Elephant reserves are well-preserved by different levels of legal protection under the policies formulated by the state government or global conventions.

To date, there are a total of 32 Elephant Reserves (ERs) extending over about 69,582.80 sq. km, as formally notified by various State Governments.

Consent for establishment of 2 more ERs – Khasi Elephant Reserve in Meghalaya and Dandeli Elephant Reserve in Karnataka is approved by the Government of India, but not yet notified by the State Government.  Also, the inclusion of Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary in the Mysore Elephant Reserve is approved by the Ministry but the concerned State Government is yet to notify.

 Monitoring against poaching

Project Elephant has been formally implementing MIKE (Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants) programme of CITES in 10 ERs since January 2004. It is mandated by COP resolution of CITES. Project Elephant was started in South Asia in 2003 with the following purposes:

• To measure levels and trends in illegal hunting of elephants.
• To determine changes in these trends over time.
• To determine the factors causing or associated with these changes and to try and assess in particular to what extent observed trends are a result of any decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties to CITES.

Data are collected from all sites on monthly basis in specified MIKE patrol form and submitted to Sub-Regional Support Office for South Asia Programme in Delhi who are assisting Ministry in implementation of the programme.

Project Elephant- Conservation strategy for Elephant

• Project elephant is a centrally sponsored scheme launched in February 1992. The scheme helps and assists in the management and protection of elephants to the States having free-ranging populations of wild elephants, in order to ensure the survival of elephant population in the wild and protection of elephant habitat and elephant corridor.
• Project elephant is mainly implemented in 16 States / UTs, which includes Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Kerala, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Uttaranchal West Bengal Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
• The union government provides financial and technical assistance to the states to achieve the goals of this project. Help is also provided for the purpose of the census, training of field officials and to ensure the mitigation and prevention of human-elephant conflict.
• There are around 32 elephant Reserves in India notified by the state governments. The first elephant reserve was the Singhbhum elephant Reserve of Jharkhand.

Objectives of project elephant

• Protection of elephants, their habitats and elephant corridors.
• Mitigation and prevention of man-elephant conflict.
• To ensure the Welfare of domesticated elephants.

The aim of this project

• To ensure the protection of elephants from hunters and poachers, and prevent illegal trade of ivory. It also includes the strategy to prevent unnatural causes of death of elephants in India.
• To develop and promote scientific and planned management strategies for the conservation of elephants.
• To mitigate and prevent the increasing conflict between humans and elephants in elephant habitats. It also aims to reduce and remove the pressure of human and domestic livestock grazing and other activities in important elephant habitat.
• To ensure ecological restoration of the natural elephant habitats and their migratory routes.
• To promote scientific research on issues related to conservation of elephants and promotion of public awareness and education on these issues.
• To ensure the proper health care and breeding of domesticated elephants. To facilitate veterinary care and Eco-development for the elephants.

Elephant corridors in India

• Elephant corridor is the narrow strips of forested lands which connects larger elephant habitats with significant elephant populations. It acts as a conduit for the movement of elephants between the elephant habitat. It is necessary to enhance species survival and birth rate of the elephant population in the wild.
• There are around 88 elephant corridors in India out of which 20 are in South India, 12 in North Western India, 14 in North West Bengal, 20 in Central India and 22 in North Eastern India. About 77.3% of these corridors are regularly used by the elephants. One-third of these corridors are of high ecological priority and other two third are of medium priority.
• These elephant habitats are facing threats due to their fragmentation. This problem is severe in areas of Northern West Bengal followed by North Western India, North Eastern India and Central India. This fragmentation was least in South India.
• 65% of elephant corridor in South India fall under protected areas or reserved forests. But only 10% of elephant corridors in Central area are completely under forest area, while 90% of them are jointly under forest, agriculture and settlements. Overall, only 24% of elephant corridors in India are under complete forest cover.

Major threats to elephant corridors

• Problems such as elephant habitat loss which is leading to fragmentation and destruction primarily due to developmental activities such as the construction of roads, railways, buildings, holiday resorts and electric fencing etc.
• Mining activities such as coal mining and iron ore mining have been described as single biggest threats to elephant corridor in Central India. States like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa are mineral rich but also have the highest number of elephant corridors which is leading to elephant man conflict.
• As elephants require extensive grazing ground for food, lack of such grazing grounds can force elephants to search for food elsewhere. Most of the elephant reserves unable to accommodate all the elephants, which results in man-elephant conflict due to the destruction of crops by elephants.

Mitigation strategies

• Fusion of elephant corridors with the nearby protected areas and reserved forest wherever possible. In other areas, to provide protection to the elephant corridors, there is a need for the declaration of ecologically sensitive areas or conservation reserves.
• Securing the elephant corridors would require awareness generation and sensitizing the local population to promote voluntary relocation outside the conflict zones. This would prevent the problem of further fragmentation of continuous forest habitats from encroachment by human beings. It would also provide refuge for other wild animals such as tiger, Sambar, crocodile, bird species etc.
• During the process of securing the elephant corridor, there is a need to monitor the animal movements along with habitat restoration as per the requirements.

Elephant as the national heritage animal of India

• The elephant has been declared as the national heritage animal by the government of India in 2010 after the recommendations of the standing committee on national board for wildlife. This was to ensure sufficient protection for elephants before it’s numbered fall to panic levels as it had happened in case of tigers.
• A proposed National elephant conservation authority (NECA) on the lines with NTCA has been proposed to be constituted by amending the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

Monitoring of illegal killing of elephants (MIKE) programme

• MIKE program was started in South Asia and in 2003 after the conference of parties a resolution of CITES. It aims to provide information which is required by the elephant range countries to make proper management and enforcement decisions and to promote institutional capacity in those States for long-term protection and management of their elephant populations.

Main objectives of MIKE programme

1. To measure the levels and trends in the illegal poaching of elephants. To ensure changes in the trends for protection of elephant population.
2. To determine the factors which are responsible for such changes, and to assess in particular about the impact of decisions of the conference of parties to CITES responsible for such changes.
3. Under this programme, data are collected on a monthly basis from all the sites in specified MIKE patrol form and it is submitted to the sub-regional support office for South Asia programme located in Delhi.

Hathi Mere Sathi

• Ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) in partnership with Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) has launched a campaign called Hathi Mere Sathi. The campaign aims to improve the conservation, protection and welfare of elephants in India. It was launched at Elephant- 8 ministerial meeting which was held in Delhi on 24th may 2011.
• The countries who are the part of the Elephant-8 ministerial meeting are Botswana, Kenya, Srilanka, Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Tanzania, Thailand and India.
• The Hathi Mere Sathi campaign aims at increasing public awareness and developing friendship and companionship between local population and elephants.

The campaign mascot Gaju

• The campaign Mascot Gaju focuses on various groups which include local people near elephant habitats, youth, policymakers and others. The scheme envisions to set up elephant centres all over the country in the elephant landscapes. It aims to spread awareness about the plight of elephants and promote people’s participation in addressing these issues.
• The campaign plans to ensure capacity building of law enforcement agencies at the ground level to enhance protection of elephants, and to advocate for the policies in favour of elephants.
• The elephant task force (ETF) which was constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest has recommended the campaign to Take Gajah (the elephant) to the Prajah (the people) in order to increase public awareness and their participation in the conservation and welfare of elephants.
• India has around 25000 – 29000 elephants in the wild. However, the tuskers (male) in India are as threatened as the Tigers as there are only around 1200 tusker elephants left in India.
• The Asian elephants are threatened by the habitat degradation, man-elephant conflict and poaching for the Ivory. This problem is more intense in India which has around 50% of the total population of world’s Asian elephants.

HUMAN –WILDLIFE CONFLICTS

The information available with the Ministry indicates a fluctuating statistic in the incidences of human wildlife conflict in the country. The details of human wildlife conflict cases are not compiled at the level of Central Government.

The Central Government provides financial assistance to State/Union Territory Governments under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of ‘Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats’, ‘Project Tiger’ and ‘Project Elephant’ for management of wildlife and its habitats in the country. The activities supported under the scheme inter-alia include construction/erection of physical barriers, such as barbed wire fence, solar powered electric fence, biofencing using cactus, boundary walls etc. to prevent the entry of wild animals into human habitat: improvement of augmenting the availability of food and water in forest areas to reduce the entry of animals from forests to habitations; payment of ex-gratia relief to the victims of wild animal attacks and depredation. Taking note of the human-animal conflict the Government of India has taken the following measures to mitigate the problem. i. Financial assistance is provided to the State Governments under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes, viz., ‘Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats’, ‘Project Tiger’ and ‘Project Elephant’ for improvement of forest and wildlife areas like the national parks and sanctuaries to augment food and water availability in forests which can reduce migration of animals from forests to the habitations. ii. Construction of barriers like boundary walls and solar-powered electric fences around the sensitive areas to prevent wild animal attacks. These activities are also eligible for Central assistance. iii. Development of necessary infrastructure and support facilities for immobilization of the identified problematic animals through tranquilization, and their relocation to the natural habitat or rehabilitation in rescue centers. iv. The Chief Wildlife Wardens of the States/Union Territories are empowered to permit hunting of problematic animals under the provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. v. Programmes are launched to sensitize people and create awareness about the Do”s and Don’ts in case of scare and attacks of wild animals. vi. Eco-development activities are undertaken in villages around Protected Areas to elicit the cooperation of communities in management of the Protected Areas which includes actions to address the grievances of people regarding human-wildlife conflicts.

Elephants straying into human habitations: The incidences of elephants straying into human habitation has increased during the last few years. The reasons of elephants straying into human habitation are: (i) Fragmentation and degradation of elephant habitats. (ii) Lack of sufficient food and water in their natural habitats. (iii) Change in the migratory paths due to disturbance/development (iv) Rapid expansion of human habitations and agriculture near elephant reserves and elephant habitats. There is loss of life, property and damage to crops due to depredation by elephants and other wild animals in Chhattisgarh in 2017. The management and protection of wild animals in the State/ Union Territory is carried out by the concerned State/Union Territory Governments. Details of wild animals venturing into human habitats reported during the last three years are not collated in the Ministry.

ELEPHANT –TRAIN COLLISIONS (MORTALITY)

Reports of collisions of elephants with trains are received from states, from time to time. Elephants Killed in Accidents: Thirty five elephants have been killed on railway tracks during last three years i.e. during 2014 to 2016 and five elephants have been killed during current year upto July 2017. A number of measures have been taken by Railways in coordination with Ministry of Environment and Forest which include the following: (i) Imposition of speed restrictions in identified locations. (ii) Provision of signage board (iii) Sensitization of Train Crew and Station Masters on a regular basis, (iv) Need based clearance of vegetation on the sides of the track within railway land (v) Construction of underpasses and ramps for the movement of elephants at identified locations and (vi) Provision of fencing at isolated locations. The above measures have helped in controlling death of wild animals. Elephant corridors have been identified by Indian Railways in coordination with Ministry of Environment and Forest. Speed restrictions on vulnerable sections, signage boards to pre-warn train drivers and whistle continuously to warn the elephants have also been provided wherever required. In most of the cases, Zonal Railways have conducted inquiry in the matter. However, in few cases, where elephants were killed on non identified Elephant corridors/ locations, and where no prior information was available with Railways from Forest Department, inquiries have not been conducted.

The Government has taken the following measures, to minimise accidental deaths of elephants due to train hits:

(i) Identification of vulnerable sections of railway tracks. (ii) Regular patrolling of vulnerable stretches of railway tracks by frontline forest staff and wildlife watchers. (iii) Forming co-ordination committees of officers of Railways and SFDs. Exchange of emails/telephone numbers of concerned officers. (iv) Sending letters, emails, SMS messages regarding presence of elephants near vulnerable railway tracks. (v) Clearing of vegetation along railway tracks to allow unhindered and clear view of train drivers. (vi) Providing signage’s at suitable points to alert train drivers about elephant presence. (vii) Avoid dumping of food waste along railway track to avoid unnecessary congregation of elephants and other wild animals near railway track. (viii) Moderating slopes for elevated sections of railway tracks so that elephants can negotiate these easily. (ix) To provide under pass/over pass at selected places for safe passage of elephants. (x) Regulation of train speed from sunset to sunrise in vulnerable stretches. (xi) Sensitisation of staff of SFDs, Railways and local people. (xii) In order to develop specific strategies and for better coordination committees have been constituted between Zonal Railway Offices and State Forest Departments. Steps undertaken by the Government to reduce human animal conflicts are given below: (i) Financial and technical assistance is provided to State/Union Territory Governments under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of ‘Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitat’, ‘Project Tiger’ and ‘Project Elephant’, augmenting their efforts for management of wildlife and their habitats. (ii) Improvement of Protected Areas, Tiger Reserves and Elephant Reserves. (iii) Regular and extensive patrolling of forest areas and anti poaching measures by frontline filed staff of the State Forest Departments. (iv) Trainings and awareness camps are organised regularly for local people for conservation of wildlife. (v) Local communities are organised into Joint Forest Management Committees/Eco-development Committees for protection of wildlife habitat, including elephant corridors. (vi) Habitat improvement and eco-restoration is taken up in critical areas of tiger reserve, elephant reserves and corridors. While considering cases for clearance under Forest Conservation Act, 1980 falling in Elephant Corridors and Elephant Reserves, the matter is dealt as per rules and as per recommendations of Chief Wildlife Wardens of concerned States/UTs. The Government has taken the following measures, in consultation with Ministry of Railways and State Forest Departments, to prevent accidental deaths of elephants: (i) A general advisory was issued jointly to all the railway zones and relevant states suggesting measures to prevent collision of trains with wild elephants. Some of the important recommendations are given below: (a) Clearance of vegetation on the sides of railway tracks. (b) Underpasses/overpasses/girder bridges across vulnerable stretches of railway tracks to allow safe passage elephants. (c) Signage boards to pre-warn the train drivers at selected points. (d) Sensitization programmes for Train Drivers/Guards/Station Masters. (e) Engagement of elephant trackers and communication with Station Masters. (f) To keep Railway tracks free from food wastes that attracts elephants. (ii) A permanent coordination committee has been constituted jointly by the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Environment and Forests to share information and monitor the implementation of the advisory. (iii) In order to develop specific strategies and Standard Operating Procedures and for better coordination committees have been constituted between Zonal Railway Offices and State Forest Departments. (iv) Ministry of Railways has also been requested to regulate the speed of trains in identified vulnerable sections between sunset and sunrise. (v) The coordination between local railway authorities and forest authorities at Central and State/Zonal levels have been effective. As a result of this elephant mortality due to train accidents has reduced to 6 in the year 2014- 15 as against 20 in 2010-11.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/project-elephant-division-starts-collection-of-captive-elephant-details-in-tn-for-centralised-database/article65314

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