Key Points:
| Asian Elephants | African Elephants |
| 3 subspecies: Indian, Sumatran and Sri Lankan. Protection Status: IUCN Red List: Endangered. WPA, 1972: Schedule I. CITES: Appendix I | 2 subspecies: Savanna (or bush) elephant and Forest elephant Protection Status: IUCN Red List Status: African Savanna Elephant: Endangered. African Forest Elephant: Critically Endangered CITES: Appendix II |
World Elephant Day:
World Elephant Day is an international annual event on August 12, dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world’s elephants.
Project Elephant:
- Launched in 1992
- Aim: To provide financial and technical support to wildlife management efforts by states for their free ranging populations of wild Asian Elephants.
- Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS)
- Objectives:
Elephant Census:
- Conducted once in 5 years under the aegis of Project Elephant.
- Karnataka has the highest number of elephants, followed by Assam and Kerala.
Seed Bombs:
- Casting seed balls (or bombs) inside different reserve forest areas to enrich food stock for wild elephants to prevent man-elephant conflict.
Gaj Yatra
- It is a nationwide campaign launched on the occasion of World Elephant Day.
- Ministry: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change,
- Idea: “Journey celebrating India’s national heritage animal”
- Aim: To secure 100 elephant corridors across India.
- Objective: To cover 12 elephant range states to provide ‘Right of Passage’ on elephant corridors in India.
- Led by the Wildlife Trust of India.
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Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) Programme:
- Established by a CITES Resolution adopted at the CoP10 in 1997.
- It is an international collaboration that measures the levels, trends, and causes of elephant mortality.
- 10 MIKE Sites in India
- Chirang-Ripu Elephant Reserve
- Dihing Patkai Elephant Reserve
- Eastern Dooars Elephant Reserve
- Deomali Elephant Reserve
- Garo Hills Elephant Reserve
- Mayurbhanj Elephant Reserve
- Shivalik Elephant Reserve
- Mysore Elephant Reserve
- Nilgiri Elephant Reserve
- Wayanad Elephant Reserve
Project RE-HAB:
- Reducing Elephant-Human Attacks using Bees
- It is intended to create “bee fences” to thwart elephant attacks in human habitations using honeybees.
- Implementing Agency: Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).
- Sub-mission of KVIC’s National Honey Mission.
32 Elephant Reserves in India:
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