Centre notifies India’s 31st elephant reserve in Tamil Nadu

Government announced one more elephant reserve (ER) in the country in Tamil Nadu.

Elephant Reserves

• The Indian elephant Elephas maximus occurs in the central and southern Western Ghats, North-east India, eastern India and northern India and in some parts of southern peninsular India.
• It is included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES).
• It occurs in 16 of the 28 states in the country and is showing an increasing trend across its distributional range.
• According to the latest elephant census conducted in 2017, the population of elephants in India has reached up to about 27,312.
• According to the 2017 census, Karnataka had the highest number of elephants (6,049), followed by Assam (5,719) and Kerala (3,054).
• Project Elephant was launched by the Government of India in the year 1992 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with following objectives:
• To protect elephants, their habitat & corridors
• To address issues of man-animal conflict
• Welfare of captive elephants
• The Project is being mainly implemented in 16 States / UTs , viz. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal.
• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change provides the financial and technical support to major elephant range states in the country through Project Elephant. 
  
  

About New Reserve:

• The new reserve will be spread over an area of 1,197 square kilometres in
• This will be the 31st ER in the country after Singphan ER in Nagaland was notified in 2018.

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 in Gujarat in 2020.
• World Elephant Day is being celebrated to bring attention of various stakeholders to support various conservation policies to help elephants, including improving enforcement policies to prevent the illegal poaching and trade of ivory, conserving elephant habitats, providing better treatment for captive elephants and reintroducing some captive elephants into sanctuaries.
• Elephant is the Natural Heritage Animal of India and India also celebrates this day to spread awareness towards conservation of the species.