LUCKNOW/LAKHIMPUR KHERI Even as the country saw a reduction in the population of tuskers, Uttar Pradesh is now home to 257 elephants, up from 232 in 2017, as per India’s first DNA-based census.
The Status of Elephants in India: The Synchronised All India Elephant Estimation (SAIEE) 2021-2025 report, released on Tuesday, stated that India is estimated to have a total of 22,446 Asian elephants – almost 17% lower than the 2017 estimate, though experts said the two were not comparable.
Among the states, Karnataka supports the highest population with 6,013 elephants, followed by Assam 4,159, Tamil Nadu 3,136, Kerala 2,785, Uttarakhand 1,792 and Odisha 912.
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. The 2017 estimation was based on the direct count method.
The Shivalik Hills and Gangetic Plains landscape has an estimated population of 2,062 elephants, with Uttarakhand being the key stronghold, along with smaller populations in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
In UP, the lower 95% CI count was 103 while upper 95% CI count was 330. In the context of an elephant census, CI stands for Confidence Interval – a statistical tool used to express the reliability and uncertainty of an estimated population count, which is derived from sampling rather than a total count.
“UP registered a rise of 10% in elephant count. We are taking care of challenges such as habitat loss, accidents and human-elephant conflicts,” said Anuradha Vemuri, principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF), UP.
In 2022, UP established the Terai Elephant Reserve (TER), which is India’s 33rd and the state’s second elephant reserve. Situated in the Dudhwa-Pilibhit region, it covers approximately 3,049 sq km; the reserve integrates Dudhwa and Pilibhit tiger reserves, Kishanpur and Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuaries and parts of the South Kheri forest division to protect Asian elephants and other species.
Officials said elephants remained a migratory guest to Uttar Pradesh from Nepal. The giant herbivorous used to visit the state through an 8-10 km wide corridor, entering Dudhwa for food and water as conditions were not favourable for them in Nepal. But they returned to their original habitat. These visits were not fixed, and in some cases, a gap of up to five years was recorded in their visits.
Since 2004, attempts were made to make elephants stay longer as they visited Dudhwa. Man-made sources for food an water attracted them to stay longer and gradually the count of resident elephants began to rise.
The route of their arrival was scanned and their food and water needs were catered to. But this too could not stop them from going back to Nepal. But gradually, the number of pachyderms coming to UP increased.
The nationwide estimate used DNA based mark-recapture for the first time in India –
it is a non-invasive wildlife monitoring technique that estimates population size and demographics without physically catching animals. It also uses unique genetic profiles (genotypes) derived from DNA found in environmental samples like hair or faeces.