The 3-day elephant population estimation which got underway on Wednesday is confined to the southern regions of the country harbouring elephants.
This is because India is switching to a common survey for elephants and tigers which by and large share common habitat. But Karnataka decided to coordinate the population estimation exercise for the southern region as it has to deal with conflict situation which was on the rise and to understand the population dynamics, said Kumar Pushkar, APCCF (Wildlife). Hence north-east India which too harbours nearly 50 per cent of the country’s elephants is not part of the exercise.
‘’At present the tiger population estimation across the country takes place once in 4 years and the Phase IV protocol to estimate the tiger numbers at the park level, takes place every year. In future, elephant population may also follow suit with park-level estimations every year’’, said Mr. Pushkar.
Apart from covering the protected areas, the non-protected areas including territorial forests, plantations and places mapped for elephant’s presence and conflict, are also being covered, he added.
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