An elephant hall facilitates the motion of the animals between two or extra viable habitat patches.
New Delhi:
India has a minimum of 150 elephant corridors spanning 15 range-states throughout 4 elephant-bearing areas. West Bengal topps the listing with 26 such land strips, in response to a brand new Union Setting Ministry report.
The central authorities’s 2010 Elephant Activity Power report (Gajah report) listed 88 corridors within the nation.
The newest report, titled “Elephant Corridors of India”, additionally highlights that the depth of elephant use has elevated in 59 of those corridors, remained secure in 29 and decreased in 29 others. Of the full corridors, 15 have been impaired and require restoration efforts to revive performance. Info relating to the present use of 18 corridors by elephants was unavailable.
An elephant hall is a land strip facilitating the motion of elephants between two or extra viable habitat patches. Corridors main the animals away from forest habitats into the human area with out connecting to viable habitat patches should not thought of true elephant corridors.
Demographic isolation and genetic viability issues pose an extinction danger to elephant populations. Subsequently, safeguarding elephant corridors is a key conservation technique, the report states.
Based on the final estimation performed in 2017, there are round 30,000 elephants in India, which account for 60 per cent of the animal’s international inhabitants.
The newest report is an end result of a collaborative effort between the Union Setting Ministry’s Mission Elephant and state forest departments, with technical help from the Wildlife Institute of India. Floor validation of the 150 elephant corridors throughout 15 states took practically two years to finish.
West Bengal leads with the very best variety of elephant corridors in India, accounting for over 17 per cent of the full such land patches within the nation, the report states.
Among the many 4 elephant-bearing areas in India, the east-central area reported the very best variety of elephant corridors at 52, adopted by the northeast area with 48 and the southern area with 32. The northern area has the bottom variety of elephant corridors at 18.
Of the 150 reported elephant corridors, 126 are throughout the political boundaries of states whereas 19 are positioned throughout two states. There are additionally six trans-national corridors between India and Nepal, primarily in Uttar Pradesh.
The report says that there are states the place elephants have just lately expanded their ranges. These embody the Vidarbha area in Maharashtra adjoining Chhattisgarh, southern Maharashtra adjoining Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh – the place elephants presently happen in Bandhavgarh and Sanjay tiger reserves – and northern Andhra Pradesh, the place elephants transfer in from Odisha.
In these states, assessing the long-term viability of habitats to help elephant populations and adopting a data-driven method to establish corridors is essential.
The report states knowledge on elephant motion stays restricted in lots of northeastern states that host comparatively small elephant populations. Collaborative efforts between state forest departments and Mission Elephant may make clear the hall standing in these areas within the coming years.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
