22,446 elephants in India: Latest count

India's elephant population is estimated at 22,446, down 17% from 2017, with habitat fragmentation posing threats to their survival, experts warn.

New Delhi: There are 22,446 elephants in the country according to All-India Synchronous Elephant Estimation (SAIEE) 2025 conducted by Wildlife Institute of India, almost 17% lower than the 2017 estimate, though experts said the two were not comparable.

The Western Ghats is home to the highest number of elephants. 11,934, followed by the north-eastern hills and Brahmaputra floodplains with 6,559. (HT Photo)

The range provided is between 18,255 and 26,645 with Karnataka ( 6013) having the highest population as per the report.

The Western Ghats is home to the highest number of elephants. 11,934, followed by the north-eastern hills and Brahmaputra floodplains with 6,559.The Shivalik Hills and Gangetic plains support 2,062 elephants, while Central India and the Eastern Ghats together have 1,891.

The estimate of 22,466 elephants is lower than 27,000 elephants estimated in Synchronised elephant population estimation India 2017, but officials said a new DNA based sampling method has been adopted this time and hence the numbers are not comparable with the previous estimation.

“I haven’t been through this report. But there was a lot of concern among the scientific community whether this should be a pilot or broad based for the entire country. We will have to go through the entire methodology to say whether this indicates a declining trend,” a wildlife biologist who works on elephants said, asking not to be named. The 2017 estimation was based on the direct count method, he added.

The nationwide estimate uses DNA based mark-recapture for the first time in India.

The estimation exercise found that once-contiguous elephant population in the Western Ghats is rapidly disconnecting due to changing land use, including expanding commercial plantations (coffee and tea), invasive plants, farmland fencing, human encroachment and mushrooming developmental projects.

“This fragmentation jeopardizes habitat contiguity, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding the connectivity in the landscape to enable free movement between the populations without escalating conflicts. Elephant habitats in the East Central landscape face fragmentation and deterioration from unmitigated mining and linear infrastructure construction, habitat degradation due to invasive plant species and human use. This has prompted long-ranging elephants to venture into historical range, but currently unoccupied areas, resulting in escalating conflicts with humans lacking cultural coexistence experience and posing a threat to elephant populations,” the report states.

Northeast landscape holds the second largest elephant population of India. However, historical exploitation of natural resources since the colonial era, driven by the productive nature of the floodplains and geopolitical considerations, has led to habitat fragmentation and increased conflicts. Currently, elephants are distributed in pockets amid various human land use patterns, including habitation, tea plantations, and mines. It is crucial to ensure corridor connectivity across habitat patches, and better strategies for law enforcement monitoring, for the long-term survival of this species in the landscape, the report has concluded.

Electrocution and railway collisions cause a significant number of elephant fatalities, while mining and highway construction disrupt habitats, intensifying man-wildlife conflicts. A sustainable resolution involves strengthening wildlife corridors, addressing mining and infrastructure-induced habitat fragmentation, implementing mitigation measures for linear infrastructure as well as power lines and enhancing law enforcement against poaching. It is essential to engage with the community, for sensitization campaigns in elephant occupied areas and newly colonized places, it states.