The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Elephant population rises 10 per cent

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 06, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Others

Elephant population rises 10 per cent

By Our Staff Reporter

POLLACHI, OCT. 5 . With Project Elephant yielding desirable results, the elephant population in the State was on the rise at least by 10 per cent, the Conservator of Forests, Coimbatore Circle, T. Sekar, said on Sunday.

He was talking to reporters at Topslip in Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary after inaugurating the Elephants Day celebrations.

The first week of October was being observed as Wildlife Week and a day was set aside to educate the public on the importance of elephants in an eco-system, their diet, habitats and to dispel with misconceptions about them.

Four reserves

Tamil Nadu had a unique distinction of having four out of the eleven elephant reserves under the Project Elephant.

Of these, the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve, Coimbatore and Anaimalais fall under the Coimbatore Circle.

Tamil Nadu had close to 3,200 elephants while Coimbatore Circle had nearly 2,100 elephants. South India, especially, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, accounted for 50 per cent of the total 28,000 elephants in the country.

Population indicated a steady growth of nearly 10 per cent every year.

The herds sighted always had a few calves and a few in the sub-adult group thus indicating steady reproductive cycles.

In the last two years, there had been no poaching incident in any of the elephant reserves and the normal mortality stood only at 1.5 per cent while the permitted average was 2 per cent, the Wildlife Warden of the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary, V. Prabhakaran, added.

Man-animal conflict

Mr. Sekar said that the population, which stood at 15,627 in 1980, had risen to 28,274 in 2001.

Because of the blocks in the migratory corridor and cropping pattern, there had been a rise in man-animal conflicts constantly, he added.

The incidents of man-animal conflict in the State had risen from one in 1991 to 16 in 2001 and the crop raids, which were nil 10 years ago had risen to 151.

The death of elephants due to electrocution stood at 8 per cent, while poaching in other parts of the country constituted 59 per cent.

Death due to run over by trains constituted 5 per cent while deaths due to using country bombs and poisoning contributed to 13 per cent.

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