Project Elephant completes 30 years

Make PDF

What is Project Elephant?

• It is  a project introduced by the Government of India in 1992  to provide financial and technical support to wildlife management efforts by states for their free-ranging populations of wild Asian Elephants. 
• The project aims to ensure the long-term survival of the population of elephants in their natural habitats by protecting them, their habitats and migration corridors. 
• Other goals of Project Elephant are supporting the research of the ecology and management of elephants, creating awareness of conservation among local people, providing improved veterinary care for captive elephants.
• Aims Project Elephant (PE) was launched by the Government of India in the year 1992 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with following objectives:

• To protect elephants, their habitat and corridors.
• To address issues of man-animal conflict.
• Welfare of captive elephants.
• to promote not to harm elephants for their tusks.
• Financial support is being provided to major elephant bearing States in the country. 
• 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. 

Other initiatives for protection of Elephants-

• MIKE programme-Project Elephant has been formally implementing MIKE (Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants) programme of CITES in 10 ERs since January 2004.
• Hathi Mere Sathi-Ministry of Environment and forests (MOEF) in partnership with Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) has launched a campaign called Hathi Mere Sathi. 
  • The campaign aims to improve the conservation, protection and welfare of elephants in India. 
  • It was launched at Elephant- 8 ministerial meeting which was held in Delhi on 24th may 2011.
• The campaign Mascot Gaju- It focuses on various groups which include local people near elephant habitats, youth, policymakers and others. The scheme envisions to set up elephant centres all over the country in the elephant landscapes. 
• The elephant task force (ETF) which was constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest has recommended the campaign to Take Gajah (the elephant) to the Prajah (the people) in order to increase public awareness and their participation in the conservation and welfare of elephants.
• Gaj Gaurav award- It is  conferred for the commendable efforts of local communities, frontline staff and mahouts working at grass root level to conserve elephants in wild and captivity.

Note: 

• 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).

List of Notified Elephant Reserves in India (As on November 2022)

Make PDF