Securing the Future for Elephants in India - Ministry of Environment ...

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(0.0097) from single source study conducted at Anamalai or Mudumalai cannot be applied for the whole country. Guidelines to either generate reliable defecation rate data or compilations of prior data from wild elephants have been scarce. In conclusion, the method of dung data collection for converting dung density estimates into elephant numbers over large landscape has a very large potential for error and biases and hence is not a reliable approach. It is also limited in scope and has limited ability to detect changes through short-term time-series monitoring. Currently Project Elephant coordinates a countrywide elephant census once in five years and from 2005 each reserve conducts its own estimation. Estimation, Research and Monitoring: Recommendations 1. Establish National Elephant Baselines and estimation protocols by a Consortium of Elephant Research and Estimation (CERE) anchored by the National Elephant Conservation Authority A properly designed elephant monitoring program based on reliable and robust methods has much wider applicability for detecting changes in elephant population status and trends over time and space. This should be coordinated by a Consortium of Elephant Research and Estimation (CERE). This is recommended to be a consortium of people and organizations with the requisite scientific skills and capabilities. Important among them are scientists (including individuals of scientific eminence who are independent research scholars), statisticians, government research institutions, universities, and non- government organizations engaged in scientific research and conservation. There should be regional nodal scientific agencies identified to coordinate monitoring and estimation of elephants at the regional level. The CERE which will be nestled within the NECA will facilitate and coordinate the working of the regional nodal agencies. 33
Note on Methods: Occupancy, abundance index, density and demography of elephants across the ranges could be key parameters for correlating them with habitat and anthropogenic and ecological variables to draw meaningful conclusions important for conservation and management. There is a need to move from simply monitoring elephants in a synchronised effort over two days towards a monitoring system that is more technically robust and inclusive. Selecting and defining the objectives at design stage is a critical task that also needs periodical improvements through consultations with several institutions, scientists and field managers. The process of implementation cannot be equally intensive at all spatial scales, as cost and availability of qualified trained manpower to collect information are the limiting factors. The range occupied by elephants is estimated to be around 110,000 km 2 of land composed of Protected Areas, Reserved and other categories of forests, plantations, agriculture, and non-forest areas. Over this extensive range, monitoring efforts are to be undertaken by building on the capacity of the network of forest field staff and watchers for field support along with wildlife biologists and research institutions for technical support and training. Forest field staff and watchers are often poorly educated and cannot be expected to adopt and implement collection of complex data that may be required for the enumeration. There is a need therefore for an integrated program that includes field staff with wildlife biologists to achieve various monitoring objectives. Here, we propose an improved three-tier approach based on recent advances in scientific methods for elephant population monitoring and landscape assessment. This will involve a combination of extensive surveys for elephant distribution and abundance index based on dung encounter and more intensive surveys in select sites for robust estimation of elephant densities and demographic parameters using line-transect surveys and/or mark-recapture estimation. These surveys will be carried out intensively in the first year of implementation to establish a national baseline for elephants. 34
Page 2 and 3: Gajah Securing the Future for Eleph
Page 4 and 5: Public hearings were organized at t
Page 6 and 7: Contents Acknowledgements i Table o
Page 8 and 9: Executive Summary Securing a future
Page 10 and 11: of land use. While securing viable
Page 12 and 13: Gajah is a symbol of a search for b
Page 14 and 15: PROPOSED STRUCTURE OF ELEPHANT CONS
Page 16 and 17: CHAPTER 1 Introduction Securing the
Page 18 and 19: But we can succeed. Indeed we must:
Page 20 and 21: From the outset, the objective was
Page 22 and 23: CHAPTER 2 Establishing a better gov
Page 24 and 25: ise and is currently at an all time
Page 26 and 27: The Chief Wildlife Wardens of the e
Page 28 and 29: of large numbers of residents in th
Page 30 and 31: Of these ten Elephant Landscapes th
Page 32 and 33: In the 8 th Five Year Plan the allo
Page 34 and 35: CHAPTER 3 Upgrading Research and Mo
Page 36 and 37: deduce any reliable inference in de
Page 38 and 39: Block sample count The total count
Page 42 and 43: Tier 1: Dung surveys for elephant o
Page 44 and 45: Tier 3: Characterization of elephan
Page 46 and 47: 5. Information transparency The Tas
Page 48 and 49: populations rests on consolidating
Page 50 and 51: Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary, Chapr
Page 52 and 53: There are two Elephant Reserves in
Page 54 and 55: cultivated lands. Heavy traffic on
Page 56 and 57: Orissa has about 57% of the elephan
Page 58 and 59: sal (Shorea robusta) forests as a r
Page 60 and 61: Hills form the Tamil Nadu part of t
Page 62 and 63: India have put in additional resour
Page 64 and 65: Government and non government organ
Page 66 and 67: c) Infrastructure and development p
Page 68 and 69: is about 18 % of the total recorded
Page 70 and 71: non-forest uses will be subject to
Page 72 and 73: clearing of forest is one of the mo
Page 74 and 75: afforestation, year-wise phased for
Page 76 and 77: h. An independent system of concurr
Page 78 and 79: The Background CHAPTER 5 Mitigating
Page 80 and 81: Secondly, conflict mitigation evolv
Page 82 and 83: Landscape management of HEC The int
Page 84 and 85: a. Opportunistic raiding: If given
Page 86 and 87: mitigation strategy that will event
Page 88 and 89: Field Level Issues Field level issu
Page 90 and 91:
(Jharkhand), Majuli (Assam), Rom-Mu
Page 92 and 93:
construction and maintenance are al
Page 94 and 95:
eing properly applied (by the gover
Page 96 and 97:
egions in India, taking into accoun
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CHAPTER 6 Anti poaching, Trade and
Page 100 and 101:
esults in loss of life and limb for
Page 102 and 103:
male reproduction between 25 and 30
Page 104 and 105:
A shift in demand will render the i
Page 106 and 107:
Legal importation of soft ivory doe
Page 108 and 109:
documented a Japanese ivory carver
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g. Regular information gathering al
Page 112 and 113:
4. Policy interventions including C
Page 114 and 115:
most states of India. These numbers
Page 116 and 117:
include the phasing out of elephant
Page 118 and 119:
that having a certificate of owners
Page 120 and 121:
employment. Their knowledge too des
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Owners are the link between the ele
Page 124 and 125:
c. A one time amnesty for elephant
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n. Activities that cause stress and
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elephant conservation and the scien
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The immediate priority should be th
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The Manasolasa by Someswara, a Sans
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The ubiquity of elephants in everyd
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CHAPTER 10 Summary Recommendations
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9. The Task Force recommends settin
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4. It is envisaged to establish Ope
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important to sensitize local commun
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15. Database for elephant related c
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11. All mahouts in service and newl
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9. Fences and Trenches can only wor
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References Ali, S. A. 1927. The Mog
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Datye, H.S.1995. Ecology of elephan
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detection probabilities are less th
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Sar, C.K. and Lahiri Choudhury 2001
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Varma, S. Venkataraman,A., Sukumar,
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24. Jadavaden Namboodri, Trustee, V
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71. R.M. Nair, Kerala 72. Rajappan
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Annexure II List of Hearings held b
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2 Kameng -Sonitpur Landscape (Aruna
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9 Periyar- Agasthyamalai Landscape
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Northern India Annexure IV(b) Prior
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4 Talamalai-Guttiyalattur 5 Avaraha
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etter way of restoring water rechar
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6. Budgeting should be provided whe
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Annexure VII Enumeration of Elephan
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No. of Visit Date of Visit No. of f
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8. Recording Observations: A Dung D
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Pg 1/3 Annexure VIII ELEPHANT CENSU
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Pg 3/3 III South Brahamputra 9. Dih
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