Asian elephants at risk as they roam outside protected areas

Asian elephants at risk as they roam outside protected areas

Subject : Environment

Context-

• Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) spend most of their time outside protected areas, putting them on a dangerous collision course with people.
• Researchers put tracking collars on 102 elephants and found that the animals tend to wander out of nature reserves where forests have become very dense to nosh on grasses, bamboo, palms and fastgrowing trees in clearer areas.
• The finding has important implications for the long-term survival of the animals.

Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)

About:

• There are three subspecies of Asian elephants which are the Indian, Sumatran and Sri Lankan.
• The Indian subspecies have the widest range and account for most of the remaining elephants on the continent.
• The elephant herd is led by the oldest and largest female member (known as the matriarch). This herd includes the daughters of the matriarch and their offspring.
• Elephants have the longest-known gestational (pregnancy) period of all mammals, lasting up to 680 days (22 months).
• Females between 14 – 45 years may give birth to calves approximately every four years with the mean interbirth intervals increasing to five years by age 52 and six years by age 60.
• Global Population: Estimated 20,000 to 40,000.

Protection Status:

• IUCN Red List: Endangered.
• Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I.
• CITES Appendix I

African Elephants:

• There are two subspecies of African elephants, the Savanna (or bush) elephant and the Forest elephant.
• Global Population: Around 4,00,000.
• Earlier in July 2020, Botswana (Africa) witnessed the death of hundreds of elephants.

Protection Status:

• IUCN Red List Status:
• African Savanna Elephant: Endangered.
• African Forest Elephant: Critically Endangered
• CITES: Appendix II

Threats:

• Escalation of poaching.
• Habitat loss.
• Human-elephant conflict.
• Mistreatment in captivity.
• Abuse due to elephant tourism.
• Rampant mining, Corridor destruction.

Human-Animal conflict-

• It refers to struggles that arise when the presence or behaviour of wildlife poses actual or perceived direct, recurring threats to human interests or needs, often leading to disagreements between groups of people and negative impacts on people and/or wildlife.

Causes of conflict:

• Habitat loss
• Growth of the population of wild animals
• Changing cropping patterns that attract wild animals to farmlands
• Movement of wild animals from forests area to human-dominated landscapes for food and fodder
• Movement of human beings to forests for illegal collection of forest produce
• Habitat degradation due to the growth of invasive alien species, etc.

Dismal situation- Loss of both animal and Human:

• 222 elephants were killed by electrocution across the country between 2018-19 and 2020-21.
• Further, 29 tigers were killed by poaching between 2019 and 2021, while 197 tiger deaths are under scrutiny.
• Among human casualties of conflict with animals, elephants killed 1,579 humans in three years — 585 in 2019-20, 461 in 2020-21, and 533 in 2021-22.
• Odisha topped the number of deaths with 332, followed by Jharkhand with 291, and West Bengal with 240.
• Whereas, Tigers killed 125 humans in reserves between 2019 and 2021.
• Maharashtra accounted for nearly half of these deaths, at 61.