India's wild elephant's count declines by 18 percent
Wild elephant's in India declines
New Delhi | Desk: India’s wild elephant’s population declined by 18 percent to 22,446 from 27,312 in 2017, according to the country’s first-ever DNA-based counts whose findings were released on Tuesday.
The All-India Synchronous Elephant Estimation (SAIEE) 2025, conducted jointly by the Ministry of Environment, Project Elephant, and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), estimated the population to range between 18,255 and 26,645, with an average of 22,446 elephants.
Reason for Delay: Officials cited that the report, which was initiated in 2021, was delayed due to the time-consuming process of genetic testing and data verification.
Scientific Methodology: Researchers collected 21,056 dung samples across various habitats and applied DNA fingerprinting to identify individual elephants. The survey also integrated M-Stripes mobile app, satellite-based mapping, and mark-recapture models to ensure accurate estimation.
Karnataka has the largest number of elephants at 6,013 followed by Assam with 4,159 Tamil Nadu with 3,136 Kerala with 2,785 and Uttarakhand with 1,792.
Key regions: The Western Ghats remains the primary elephant's habitat with 11,934 elephants follwed by Northeastern hills and the Brahmaputra floodplains with 6,559.
Smaller and fragmented herds survive in Madhya Pradesh (97), Maharashtra (63), Odisha (912), Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand combined (650), Arunachal Pradesh (617), Meghalaya (677), Nagaland (252), and Tripura (153).
India is home to more than 60 percent of World's Asian elephants, yet their habitat is rapidly shrinking due to human encroachment, infrastructure expansion, and growing human-elephant conflicts. Experts say this DNA-based census provides a scientific baseline that will be crucial for future conservation plans.
