Arunachal pips Uttarakhand in elephant growth, reveals Census

DEHRADUN: Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have together recorded an increase of more than 1,200 wild elephants in the wild in the last five years, as per a census report released by the government. Arunchal Pradesh now has 724 more elephants compared to 890 in 2012, while in Uttarakhand their numbers have gone up by 493.

Now for the bad news: The population of elephants in India has declined by nearly 11% or 3,399 in the last five years — from 30,711 in 2012 to 27,312 in 2017.

Releasing the report --- Synchronised Elephant Population Estimation 2017 --- in New Delhi, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said, elephants are now present in over 22 states and a union territory. He added that the results were based only on the direct count method.

“At this stage, comparisons should not be made (between 2017 and 2012), the reason being that the earlier census results were based on a mixture of direct and indirect counting methods, as reported by different states,” the census report pointed out.

In Uttarakhand, no national estimation was done in 2012 and therefore the figure of 1,346 elephants reported in 2007 was taken as it is. The latest census recorded 1.839 elephants --- a difference of 493 individuals. Uttarakhand also conducted a state survey in 2015 in which 1,797 elephants were reported against 1,559 in 2012. Digvijay Singh Khati, chief wildlife warden told Hindustan Times, “Despite issues of blocked corridors, habitat degradation and encroachment, the state has reported healthy population of elephants.”