Uttarakhand And Uttar Pradesh Synchronise Their Elephant Counting Exercise In A Unique Census

Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh will conduct a census of elephants in a three-day exercise. The population of elephants -- a long-range animal that keeps moving between ranges -- will be ascertained with the help of the count done by UP, which was requested to join the exercise. The count will be done simultaneously by the forest department of the two states to achieve synchronisation .

With the exercise, Uttarakhand is trying to revive a facet of culture from the times before Uttarakhand was born from Uttar Pradesh. This report quotes Uttarakhand chief wildlife warden Rajiv Bhartari as saying: "While Uttarakhand was a part of Uttar Pradesh, we had a trend of estimating wild animal population annually which gradually got off track and now, we are restarting the culture to give a boost to our wildlife."

Uttarakhand is conducting the census of elephants with the help of personnels who have been trained for the exercise.

Drones will be used for the first time for the direct sighting of elephants in the census which will take into account the different circles and bastions of the pachyderm population in the state.

Last year, Uttarakhand had counted its crocodiles in a similar exercise in the Tarai areas.

The census will be conducted in the evening and morning hours between 6 June and 8 June as per this report. Elephants will be tracked during these three days to avoid a repeat of counting. Rajaji Tiger Reserve, Corbett Tiger Reserve, Lansdowne Forest Division and Western Circle are the cradles of elephant population in Uttarakhand.

Parag Madhukar Dhakate, chief conservator forests, (western circle) Kumaun region is quoted as saying: “The elephant census after a gap of five years will begin on June 6. According to the last elephant census, there were 1,797 wild elephants in the state. We are expecting a good surge in the elephant numbers across the state this time.”

The forest areas have been divided into blocks. The drones will fly over these blocks in a zigzag manner to work towards an effective direct sighting.

The census is expected to help the state forest department in dealing with the rising man-elephant conflict related issues and in shaping changes in policy surrounding initiatives in elephant conservation.

The staff under the forest department has been trained for the exercise with the aim of arriving at accurate numbers and data, which will be analysed to ascertain the exact figure.

There have been rising concerns in the state on the man-elephant conflict -- especially in landscapes of Corbett, Rajaji National Park and areas in the Tarai region.

Uttarakhand was ranked sixth in elephant population with 1839.

Karnataka on top, Uttarakhand comes after Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. Between 2015 and 2017, Uttarakhand had seen an increase in elephant population from 1,797 to 1,839. This particular elephant population estimation was conducted "at the behest of Project Elephant".

It was done under a collaboration of the environment ministry and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

In the census this year, Uttar Pradesh will take into account the population of elephants in border areas of Nepal and Uttarakhand.

There are focus areas for Uttar Pradesh, which include Amangarh division (adjoining Corbett), the Najibabd division (which falls in Bijnor and adjoins Lansdowne in Uttarakhand) and Dudhwa and Katarniaghat (adjoining Nepal).