World Elephant day – 2022 was celebrated today at Periyar, Kerala in the presence of Shri Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (EF&CC).
- The Union Minister released “Elephant Reserves of India: An Atlas”, “Elephant Reserves of India: Land Use Land Cover Classification”, “Caring for elephants: Managing health and welfare in captivity” and the Special edition of “Trumpet”.
Gaj Gaurav award
- For the first time in an initiative taken by the Environment Minister, Gaj Gaurav award was conferred for the commendable efforts of local communities, frontline staff and mahouts working at grass root level to conserve elephants in wild and captivity.
- This year the Malasar Community belonging to the Anamalai of Tamil Nadu and mahouts of Kerala and Assam were awarded the Gaj Gaurav award by the Union Minister, EF&CC.
Elephant population
- The Union Minister informed the audience that India has the largest and the most stable population of Asian elephants.
- In fact, more than 60% of wild Asian elephants are in India. The population of 29,964 elephants as recorded in the last elephant census conducted in 2017 speaks volumes of the passion for wildlife conservation ingrained in Indian culture.
Agasthiyamalai-A new elephant reserve in India
- India has 31 Elephant Reserves.
- In the last 3 years, Dandeli Elephant Reserve has been notified by the state of Karnataka, Singphan Elephant Reserve by Nagaland and Lemru Elephant Reserve in Chhattisgarh.
- This has brought the total area under Elephant Reserves in India to about 76,508 sqkm across 14 states of the country.
- He also shared that India is going to witness the establishment of one more Elephant Reserve, the Agasthiyamalai in Tamil Nadu, adding yet another 1197 sqkm of Protected Area dedicated for protection and conservation of elephants in India.
About World Elephant Day
- World Elephant Day is an international annual event, dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world’s elephants.
- The goal of World Elephant Day is to create awareness on elephant conservation, and to share knowledge and positive solutions for the better protection and management of wild and captive elephants.
- The current population estimates indicate that there are about 50,000 – 60000 Asian elephants in the world. More than 60% of the population is held in India.
- Indian Elephant has also been listed in the Appendix I of the Convention of the Migratory species in the recently concluded Conference of Parties of CMS 13 at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat in February 2020.
- Elephant is the Natural Heritage Animal of India and India also celebrates this day to spread awareness towards conservation of the species.
