Protected Area Network in Orissa - Vasundhara

Elephant Reserves in OrissaElephant is an animal included in Schedule-I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Acomplete ban on ivory trade was imposed in 1991. Project Elephant was launched inFebruary 1992 by Govt. of India to consolidate the programmes for conservation ofelephant and its habitat. The Project seeks to address (a) the threats to the survival ofelephant in our country on account of loss of its habitat, migration path and poachingfor tusks; and (b) issues arising out of elephant depredation in villages. ProjectElephant also seeks (i) to maintain an appropriate size of the population in any habitatto safeguard it against extinction; and (ii) to maintain genetic continuity of isolatedpopulations, which are otherwise susceptible to inbreeding.Three Elephant Reserves (ERs) --- the Mayurbhanj ER, Mahanadi ER and SambalpurER were notified in the State in the years 2001 and 2002 to define the prime elephanthabitats and to launch various management interventions for conservation ofelephant. The extent of notified and proposed forest blocks in these three reserves is4129 sq. km, and the geographical area covered by these three reserves is 8509 sq. km.In order to (a) include most of the remaining important elephant habitats within ERs,(b) redress the problem of rising number of cases of elephant depredation and (c)reverse the trend of habitat fragmentation and degradation, it is proposed (i) toexpand the area of Mahanadi and Sambalpur ERs, and (ii) to constitute new ERscalled the Brahmani-Baitarani ER and South Orissa ER. After final constitution of theER-network the maximum number of elephants will remain within the Reserves.118