News Excerpt:
From May 23, a synchronized three-day elephant estimation will be conducted in the southern Indian states.
More about the news:
- Field assessment plays a crucial role in the resolutions proposed by the Inter-State Coordination Committee, which includes Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.
- These resolutions aim to tackle human-wildlife conflicts through collaborative efforts and intelligence sharing.
Key points:
- Andhra Pradesh will also participate in this collaborative effort to tackle human-wildlife conflicts. The heads of the Forest departments of these four states convened online to discuss the census methodology.
- Root Cause: The catalyst for this initiative, the unfortunate incident involving the radio-collared tuskless male in Wayanad, Kerala, underscores the urgency of such coordinated efforts.
- It's promising to see the collaboration among the southern states, as evidenced by the Interstate Coordination Committee Charter 2024.
- This charter highlights the commitment to collaboration and outlines concrete steps, including population estimation exercises.
- Methodology:
- The enumeration will begin with the block count sampling method on the first day, dividing forest divisions into sample blocks ranging from 4 to 6 square kilometers.
- The second day will employ the indirect dung count method, estimating elephant numbers based on dung density and distance from transects in elephant habitats.
- On the third day, the focus will be on the waterhole count method, identifying water bodies frequented by elephants.
- When direct count is done properly, it will give the minimum number of elephants in the wild.
- Dung count is inaccurate unless a study of the decay rate in different habitats and rainfall regions started six months before the elephant count, then this method would give a more comprehensive idea of the distribution of elephants in the wild.
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Water Hole Count Method
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- Estimation in Kerala: In Kerala, the elephant population estimation will cover approximately 610 sample blocks across Anamudi, Nilambur, Periyar, and Wayanad elephant reserves, with particular attention to areas bordering Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
- Previous year estimation: Last year's estimation using block count and dung count methods recorded 1,920 and 2,386 elephants, respectively, significantly lower than the counts in 2017 (3,322 and 5,706 respectively), attributed by the Forest Department to migration patterns influenced by climate and the shared borders among Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.
- Importance of this Initiative:
- The upcoming elephant census in the border areas of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh is a crucial initiative for understanding the dynamics of human-elephant conflict in the region.
- There is a departure from the usual practice of covering entire forest patches and instead focusing on border areas. This change reflects a targeted approach to addressing conflict zones and developing more effective policies for mitigation.
- The decision to exclude captive elephants from the census and focus solely on wild populations aims to prioritize the assessment of elephants in their natural habitats, where conflicts with humans are most prevalent.
