Working on estimating wild elephants: Govt

The written response from Kirti Vardhan Singh, minister of state for environment , came in response to a question by Congress MP Sasikath Senthil.

The government has informed Parliament that the Union environment ministry and the Wildlife Institute of India are working on an estimation of the wile elephant population, and that this report will be made public after its completion.

Working on estimating wild elephants: Govt

The written response from Kirti Vardhan Singh, minister of state for environment , in response to a question by Congress MP Sasikath Senthil, comes in the context of media reports that said that a draft of the report showed a sharp, 20% decline in the population of elephants.

There were 628 human deaths on account of human-elephant conflicts in 2023-24, the highest in the last five years, the environment ministry added in another response, this one to questions by Kerala Congress MPs Anto Anthony and Benny Behanan on the number of human-animal conflicts reported during the last five years along with the number of human casualties resulting from these incidents

There were also 121 elephant deaths the same year. There were 17 elephant deaths due to train accidents in 2023-24; 94 due to electrocution; 9 due to poaching and 1 due to poisoning. Of the human deaths, 154 were in Odisha, 99 in West Bengal, 87 in Jharkhand, 74 in Assam and 51 in Chhattisgarh.

The management of wildlife habitats including elephant conservation is primarily the responsibility of state and UT administrations, Singh said in response to Senthil’s question. He added that activities related to infrastructure development projects are regulated as per existing acts, rules and guidelines and that necessary mitigation measures are also taken in developmental projects as and where applicable.