Elephant conservation news 28 August - 3 September
The Indian government has announced that it is to enshrine the protection of the country's elephants in a similar way to its commitment on tiger conservation.
The environment and forests ministry said that it would make the elephant a "national heritage animal", The Hindu newspaper reported.
The move follows the publishing this week of the findings from the Elephant Task Force, a body established by the ministry. It is now believed that a similar body to the existing National Tiger Conservation Authority will be established, with a remit to take on renewed conservation efforts for the giant mammals.
Taking as its goal the securing of the animals' future in India, the report warns that "it is not immediate extinction as much as attrition of living spaces and the tense conditions of the human-elephant encounter on the ground that require redress".
While the country is home to 25,000-plus animals - and therefore the population has not experienced the dwindling seen in tiger stocks - there are large imbalances in the gender ratio in some areas.
Earlier this year, an adult male - believed to be in a state of musth - went on a rampage, killing around 12 females. The attacks took place in an area of reserve where there were reckoned to be 79 females for every male.
While incursions by humans into elephant habitats lead to up to 400 deaths from trampling each year, the report says that "retaliatory killing of elephants" by humans is a major problem resulting in around 100 animal deaths each year. It notes that such conflict stems from the "failure to protect forest cover or reverse their fragmentation and degradation".
The report recommends a thorough review of the policy for mitigating such human/elephant conflict, and points out that individual farmers - who are on the front line of such exposure - should not be expected to manage it themselves.
It calls for the creation of a Consortium of Elephant Research and Estimation within the national elephant body, to conduct studies of elephant numbers, and also suggests new ways of consolidating and protecting elephant habitats, and preserving 'elephant corridors' to allow the animals to move between different areas.
Meanwhile, the report also makes clear the need for increased financial commitment from the Indian government to carry out the measures.
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh told The Times of India newspaper: "We will soon declare elephant as a national heritage animal as it has been part of our heritage since ages.
"We need to give same degree of importance to elephant as is given to tiger in order to protect the big animal."
