Environment › Species in news
Elephant
India counted its elephants by their genes, and the number that came back, 22,446, is the base every later count will be read against. The same August brought a Supreme Court order on the corridors elephants use between forests, and an Assam experiment that clears invasive weeds from their habitat and burns them into biochar. The subject is less how many elephants there are than whether they can still move.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2020: Indian elephants, herd leadership, gestation and State populations
- Prelims 2017: the reserve that connects the Eastern and Western Ghats
The animal
- The Asian elephant Elephas maximus is a keystone species, dispersing seeds and opening pathways that other species then use.
- It is Endangered on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
- It is a Schedule I species under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
- It lives in moist and dry forest and grassland, and India holds nearly 60 per cent of the world's wild Asian elephants.
- The wild population was put at 22,446 by the Synchronous All India Population Estimation of Elephants (SAIEE), run from 2021 to 2025.
- Its main threats are human elephant conflict, blocked migratory routes and habitat degraded by invasive weeds.
- Project Elephant, launched in 1992, is the conservation programme, with 33 Elephant Reserves across 14 States.
The corridors, as they stand
East Central52
North East48
Southern32
Northern18
- The 2023 assessment validated 150 corridors, which is the map the Court has now ordered resurveyed.
- Nineteen of them cross State lines and six reach into Nepal, which is why a single State cannot settle a route on its own.
What has happened
23 Aug 2026
Assam began clearing invasive alien plants from elephant habitat in Khalingduar Reserve Forest, Udalguri, turning the cleared biomass into biochar.
- The target weeds are Lantana camara, Chromolaena odorata and Mikania micrantha, which choke native fodder.
- Seed balls help native vegetation regenerate.
17 Aug 2026
The Supreme Court ordered a fresh nationwide survey of elephant corridors, with a report on removing obstructions within eight weeks.
- It held that no State may block a traditional route over crop damage.
- It asked the Centre to check reports of fireballs, torches and spikes, banned in 2018, still driving elephants away.
The Hindu, 18 Aug 2026: Supreme Court: no State can block elephant corridors (opens in a new tab)
12 Aug 2026
SAIEE was released on World Elephant Day as India's first elephant count built on DNA fingerprinting.
- It read genetic identity from dung samples rather than counting sightings.
- Project Elephant marked the day with a Regional Action Plan on human elephant conflict for the southern States, and 30 Giant Steps.