India's elephant population down by 20 per cent in 5 years: Report

Since February this year, hundreds of copies of the environment ministry’s elephant census report — 'Status of Elephants in India 2022-23' — have remained unreleased, with the government attributing the delay to pending census data from the Northeast.

It is reported that India's elephant population has declined by 20 per cent in the five years since 2017. The ministry claims the publication of the report has been postponed as data from the northeastern states is yet to arrive.

Of the 20 per cent, the Central Indian plateau and Eastern Ghats recorded a 41 per cent dip, with some states like southern West Bengal (84 per cent), Jharkhand (68 per cent), and Odisha (54 per cent) experiencing major declines.

The Western Ghats also saw a decline of 18 per cent, particularly in Kerala, where the population fell by 51 per cent. The Shivalik Hills and Gangetic plains recorded only a slight drop (2 per cent), while the Northeast’s data was not updated, but is expected to see a reduction when properly modelled.

The cause

The publication cited “mushrooming developmental projects”, uncontrolled expansion of infrastructure and industry, particularly unmitigated mining, linear infrastructure construction, and habitat fragmentation as key threats to elephants. Poaching, railway collisions, and electrocution are other significant risks. The population in the Western Ghats and Central India are becoming increasingly fragmented due to land-use changes thanks to plantations, fencing, and human encroachment.

Elephants in the Northeast are under threat from a mosaic of human habitation, plantations, mines, and oil refineries.

The ministry stated that the current report is an interim version and the final report, including data from Northeast data, is expected by June 2025. 

"An interim draft report was prepared by WII (Wildlife Institute of India). However, it did not have a uniform methodology and results, especially for the Northeastern states (where) the estimation is expected to be completed by next year and a report is expected by the end of June 2025. The process involves new methods including DNA profiling and camera traps which was not done by WII in the Northeast region due to paucity of time and required training and other logistics,” the ministry said.

On the significant drop in elephant numbers, it said, “This is an ongoing exercise and the progress of the same is being reviewed regularly in the Ministry at various levels. The ongoing exercise uses a framework that is used for the monitoring of tigers, co-predators and prey… (which) is different from the All India Synchronized Elephant Population Estimation 2017.”

The report emphasises the need to address the impact of developmental projects which have severely fragmented elephant habitats, increasing human-elephant conflict and other risks such as poaching. The findings suggest the necessity to reevaluate conservation policies to focus on maintaining elephant corridors, mitigating the impact of infrastructure projects, and fostering community support for conservation.