Context

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

About

Important facts on Elephant

• The Indian elephant Elephas maximusoccurs 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).
• 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.
• It occurs in 16 of the 28 states in the country and is showing an increasing trend across its distributional range.

Population Update

• 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

• Project Elephantwas 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 (August 12)is an international annual event, dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world's elephants.
• Objective: 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.
• Elephant is the Natural Heritage Animal of India and India also celebrates this day to spread awareness towards conservation of the species.