Environment › Biodiversity governance

Human wildlife conflict and wildlife crime

Where wild animals and people meet, and where the law meets those who trade in wildlife: conflict and compensation, roads and railways through habitat, poaching, seizures and the smuggling of exotic animals. Prelims has asked which of a set of animals, the star tortoise among them, are found naturally in India.

Showing 1 of 5 subjects, those that changed from 16 to 31 July 2026.Show all

Profiling elephants that stray

Prelims and Mains

Elephants that repeatedly enter settlements are usually a few identifiable individuals whose movements follow a pattern, which is why forest departments have begun keeping photo profiles of them.

What changed

27 Jul 2026New subjectalso in news
- Kerala's Forest Department has begun photo profiling individual elephants that repeatedly enter settlements, after finding that habitual strayers follow predictable patterns. A separate study found rainfall to be the strongest predictor of elephant presence in the southern Western Ghats.
The Hindu, 27 Jul 2026 · The Hindu, 14 Jul 2026: Rainfall has major impact on elephant movement in southern Western Ghats (opens in a new tab)

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Project Elephant marked World Elephant Day with two announcements, and neither was about how many elephants there are.