List of Elephant Reserves in India - Distribution, Aim of Protection and Different Projects

India is home to a few vast warm-blooded animals, including the Asian elephant. The Indian Elephant is a subspecies of the Asian elephant and the most significant living mammal in India, distributed in Southeast Asia. The situation with elephants can be the best marker of the situation with the timberlands. 

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Distribution of Elephants 

Asian elephants were broadly distributed - from Tigris - Euphrates in West Asia toward the east through Persia into the Indian subcontinent, South and South-East Asia. Presently, they are bound to the Indian Subcontinent, South East Asia and some Asian Islands - Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia. About 60% of the Asian elephant populace is in India. 

Old writings indicate that, during the Mughal time frame, elephants were tracked down all over India. However, the current distribution of wild elephants in India is restricted to South India; North East including North West Bengal; Central Indian provinces of Odisha, South WB and Jharkhand; and North-West India in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The elephant population of India 

Here is the list of population of total elephant in India: 

Government Initiatives to Save the Elephant Population 

The Government ran many campaigns to spread awareness about saving elephants. These campaigns include Gaj Yatra, a nationwide campaign launched in 2017 during World Elephant Day (12th August). Haathi Mere Saathi campaign for the conservation and welfare of elephants in India. The Ministry of Environment and Forests conducts these campaigns in association with the Wildlife Trust of India.

What is Project Elephant in India? 

Project Elephant in India is a Central Government endorsed plan. This project elephant was launched in February 1992. Through the Project Elephant scheme, the public authority helps protect and manage elephant corridors in India. It guarantees the security of elephant corridors in India and elephant territory for the endurance of the elephant populace in the jungles. 

This elephant conservation strategy is for the most part executed in 16 of 28 states or association regions in the country which incorporates Nagaland, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. The government gives specialized and monetary assistance to these states to complete and accomplish the objectives of project elephant year. Not simply that, to help with the end goal of the enumeration, field authorities' training is also given to guarantee the moderation and avoidance of human-elephant struggles and conflicts.

Objectives of Project Elephant 

Project elephant in India has the following objectives. 

• To guarantee the Welfare of domesticated elephants.

• Assurance of protection of elephants, their territories, and elephant passages (corridors).

• Anticipation and prevention of human-elephant struggle. 

Aims of Project Elephant: 

• Create and promote logical, scientific, and planned management methodologies for Elephant protection. 

• Develop methodologies to check unnatural causes for elephants' death in India. 

• Decrease and eliminate domestic cattle grazing, human footprints, and their activities in significant elephant habitats. 

• Prevent illicit exchange of ivory and guarantee elephant protection

• From hunters, smugglers, and poachers. 

• Guarantee environmental reclamation of the natural elephant territories and their transitory routes.

• To work with veterinarians for legitimate reproducing and medical services of domesticated elephants and facilitate eco-development for the elephants. 

• Promote scientific examination on issues identified with elephant preservation and instructing people in general on these issues. 

• To relieve and prevent the expanding struggle in elephant territories among people and elephants. 

MIKE Program

• MIKE, the shortened form of the Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants program, was begun in South Asia in 2003.

• The goal of MIKE was to give the data needed by the elephant range nations for legitimate administration and long haul protection of their elephant population.

• The targets of the MIKE program are as per the following: 

• To quantify the levels and patterns in unlawful poaching and guarantee changes in the patterns for elephant protection. 

• To determine the elements liable for such changes and to assess the impact of decisions by the conference of parties to CITES.

What is the Function of the Elephant Task Force? 

The increased tension because of the wild retaliatory killing of elephants and human-elephant struggle provoked the public authority to set up the Elephant Task Force under the Tiger Task Force. The focal point of the Elephant Task Force was to bring real answers for the preservation of the total elephant in India for the long term.

If we analyze the list of elephant reserves of India, around 25000 – 29000 elephants in nature. In any case, the tuskers (male) in India are just about as compromised as the Tigers as there are just around 1200 tusker elephants left in India. The Asian elephants are undermined by environmental corruption, man-elephant struggle, and poaching for the Ivory. This issue is more intense in India, which has around half of the complete populace of the world's Asian elephants. Project Elephant in India is viewed as an accomplishment from the perspective of numerous conservationists. It has been able to keep the number of elephants at a steady and maintainable number.

What is an Elephant Corridor?

Elephant corridors are the narrow strips of land masses, where elephants are always seen traveling. They always walk through this path because it connects two significant habitats of elephants. It is always on the news about how a hard elephant killed a man. This is because the man may be seen at the path where elephants walk. Elephants are animals here. Sometimes some elephant mod hers and detail from its way. That is when it enters into human territories. Due to various human needs like settlements, roads, railways, electrical lines, canals, and other infrastructural development, these elephant corridors in India are fragmented; instead, the forest becomes fragmented. The movement of elephants facilitates movement and intermixing of gene pools, promoting variation and balancing their birth rate and survival. It also helps in the regeneration of the forests.

Why Should We Protect Elephant Corridors?

• The movement of elephants will promote genetic variation in the elephant population. It will also enable the revival of forests, boosting the people of other wild animals.

• Recent inspections and reports reveal that only 60% of the total elephant Reserves are safe. The rest 40%are unsafe because they are not within protected boundaries. The elephant corridors in India have no legal protection, so there is constant human interaction which eventually leads to casualties.

• The forests that are turned into farmlands and the unmanaged tourism are blocking elephants' passages, which also lead to casualties.

• Weak regulation of eco-tourism severely impacts the habitats of animals that need a more significant forest.

List of Elephant Reserves of India: 

In most of the exams, we often face a common question: write the number of elephant reserves in India. Well, there are 32 Elephant Reserves in India. It covers a total of 65,270 sq. kilometers of area. 

Below is the list of Elephant Reserves of India tabulated according to Elephant ranges. This list will give an idea about which state has the highest number of elephants in India.

As per the report, Karnataka has the highest number of elephants in India.