{"id":17420,"date":"2023-09-20T10:27:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T04:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/?p=17420"},"modified":"2023-09-21T10:28:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T04:58:08","slug":"report-on-elephant-corridors-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/20-09-2023\/report-on-elephant-corridors-of-india","title":{"rendered":"Report on Elephant Corridors of India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS-3\/Environment, Conservation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Context<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently, the <strong>Union Ministry of Environment<\/strong> has released a report on <strong>Elephant Corridors of India, 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The report has been compiled by the <strong>Elephant Cell of Wildlife Institute of India (WII).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">What is the Elephant Corridor?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An elephant corridor is a land strip facilitating the movement of elephants between two or more viable habitat patches.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Key Points of the Report:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Centre has identified <strong>62 new corridors<\/strong> used by elephants for movement, the<strong> total number of corridors are 150.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Previously in the <strong>2010 Elephant Task Force Report,<\/strong> there were <strong>88 corridors<\/strong> in the country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Out of total corridors in India,<strong> 26 are in Bengal <\/strong>(17%&nbsp; of all the passages).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The intensity of elephant use has increased in <strong>59 of these corridors,<\/strong> and remained stable.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>15 have been impaired <\/strong>and require restoration efforts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>29<\/strong> corridors have recorded a<strong> decline in usage<\/strong> by elephants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Four elephant-bearing regions in India:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>the East-Central region reported the highest number of elephant corridors at 52<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the Northeast Region at 48<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the Southern Region at 32<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Northern region has the lowest number of elephant corridors at 18.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Of the total elephant corridors, <strong>126 are within the political boundaries of states <\/strong>while <strong>19 are located across two states<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There are states where elephants have recently increased. These include the <strong>Vidarbha region in Maharashtra<\/strong>, <strong>Southern Maharashtra<\/strong> &#8211; where elephants are present in <strong>Bandhavgarh and Sanjay tiger reserves<\/strong> &#8211; and <strong>Northern Andhra Pradesh<\/strong>, where elephants move in from Odisha.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">About Elephants<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Elephants are the largest land mammals on earth and have distinctly massive bodies, large ears, and long trunks. There are<strong> two types<\/strong> of elephants- <strong>Asian Elephants and African Elephants.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Asian Elephants:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Scientific Name:<\/strong> Elephas maximus indicus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Size<\/strong>: The Asian elephant is the largest land mammal on the Asian continent.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Habitat and distribution: <\/strong>They inhabit dry to wet forest and grassland habitats in 13 range countries spanning South and Southeast Asia.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>IUCN Status:&nbsp;<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They are listed as <strong>\u201cEndangered\u201d<\/strong> on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Asian elephants have also been listed in the Appendix I of the Convention of the Migratory species (CMS). It was decided at the Conference of Parties of CMS 13 held at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat in 2020.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>African Elephants:&nbsp;<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Scientific Name:<\/strong> loxodonta cyclotis<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There are two subspecies of African elephants, <strong>the Savanna (or bush) elephant and the Forest elephant.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>IUCN Status:&nbsp;<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>African forest elephant: Critically Endangered<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>African savanna elephant: Endangered<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/cy8XqHQ-0en8zF1E46s4binCkZjiU117dXaeyFz8LDHnIDdEx4OTXMZXVuTEyv1SouDCfg9BmNWTpXLpHTsXh37h4zD2xfU2uj5Ccsh0YCvpjG9KUCYnBT9YZg8uyUpC84aJDMURcDrxsTzFAXm63Kw\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:541px;height:636px\" width=\"541\" height=\"636\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Threats to the Elephants<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The demand for ivory leads to the illegal poaching of both African and Asian elephants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The loss of habitat due to deforestation increases in mining and agricultural activities has become problematic, especially for Asian elephants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is a significant concern, as human populations increase and forest cover decreases, forcing elephants into close proximity with human settlements.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A lack of legislation regarding the care and treatment of elephants in zoos, circuses, and tourism often leads to their mistreatment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Population in India :&nbsp;<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>According to the last estimation conducted in 2017, there are around <strong>30,000 elephants in India<\/strong>, which account for <strong>60 percent <\/strong>of the global population.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Karnataka has the largest number of elephants in the country and Maharashtra has the lowest elephant population in India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Initiatives Taken:&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Project Elephant (PE):<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It was launched in 1992 to provide financial and technical support to major elephant bearing States in the country for the protection of elephants, their habitats and corridors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is a centrally sponsored scheme and seeks to address the issues of human-elephant conflict and the welfare of domesticated elephants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Features:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Welfare of the domestic elephants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mitigation of human-elephant conflict.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Measures for protection of elephants against poachers and unnatural death.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The<strong> National Portal on human-elephant conflict called \u201cSurakshya\u201d<\/strong> for the collection of real-time information &amp; also for managing the conflicts on a real-time basis.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The government is using <strong>LiDAR technology <\/strong>in order to provide fodder and water augmentation in forest areas so that animals will get food and water in forest areas and will not come outside.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Under the<strong> Project RE-HAB<\/strong>, bee boxes will be used as a fence to prevent the attack of elephants.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The bee boxes are set up in the passageways of human-elephant conflict zones to block the entrance of elephants to human habitations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/news\/wildlife-biodiversity\/centre-identifies-62-new-elephant-corridors-total-now-150-91825\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>DTE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Syllabus: GS-3\/Environment, Conservation Context Recently, the Union Ministry of Environment has released a report on Elephant Corridors of India, 2023. What is the Elephant Corridor? Key Points of the Report: About Elephants Initiatives Taken:&nbsp; Source: DTE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17421,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17420\/revisions\/17421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}