India to take up Elephant and Tiger population estimation exercise in convergence for the first time in 2022 and on Thursday came up with estimation protocol to be adopted for the exercise.
On the World Elephant Day, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav released the population estimation protocol. Speaking on the occasion, he stressed on the involvement of local and indigenous people in the Conservation of elephants.
He noted that a bottom up approach was the way forward, which will help in minimising Human-Elephant Conflict.
Yadav said that there has been a pressing need to improve and harmonize the population estimation methods along more scientific lines in various states across India and expressed happiness that the Ministry for the first time is converging both elephant and tiger population estimation.
There has been a need to harmonise population estimation methods along more scientific lines. The @moefcc for the first time is converging elephant & tiger population estimation. On #WorldElephantDay, released the protocol for the exercise. pic.twitter.com/khfCr7z2pN
— Bhupender Yadav (@byadavbjp) August 12, 2021
Minister of State Ashwinin Kumar Chaubey stated that Saving Elephants was saving forests and saving forests leads to saving the entire ecosystems. He also exhorted everyone, especially the youth to nurture and carry forward the traditional ethos of Indian culture of living in harmony with Nature and wildlife.
ASIAN ELEPHANTS
Asian elephants are listed as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. This has been done as most of the range states except India, have lost their viable elephant populations due to loss of habitats and poaching. The present population estimates indicate that there are about 50,000 to 60000 Asian elephants in the world. More than 60 per cent of the population is in India.
Indian Elephant has also been listed in the Appendix I of the Convention of the Migratory species in the recently concluded Conference of Parties of CMS 13 at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat in February 2020.
ELEPHANT DAY
World Elephant Day is celebrated to bring attention of various stakeholders to support various conservation policies to help elephants, including improving enforcement policies to prevent the illegal poaching and trade of ivory, conserving elephant habitats, providing better treatment for captive elephants and reintroducing some captive elephants into sanctuaries.
