For the first time, the Environment Ministry and State Forest Departments are carrying out a thorough scientific estimate, aided in chief by the 'dung decay method', which is used the world over
Forest staffers and volunteers across India recently finished mammoth field studies to estimate elephant population, last done in an ad-hoc way in 2012. The secret of their numbers, though, lies in the dung of these gentle giants. For the first time, the Environment Ministry and State Forest Departments are carrying out a thorough scientific estimate, aided in chief by the 'dung decay method', which is used the world over.
Officially called the 'All India Synchronized Asian Elephant Population Estimation', the field exercise, carried out by Project Elephant of the Environment Ministry, began in November last year and ended in May.
At 35 locations in the country, beginning November, teams of foresters and volunteers sampled and recorded dung piles, during a space of 10-15 days each. This was used to assess dung density. After a gap of a few months, when the direct counting exercise began, the dung piles were revisited to assess their decay rate. After assessing dung density and its decay rate, the third element of elephant defecation rate comes into play.
"As per studies, elephants defecate 15-16 times a day on an average and this data is used in the mathematical formula to estimate elephant density. The dung density figure is multiplied by its decay rate and divided by the normal defecation rate. This throws up the density of elephants in a sample size area of 5-6 sq.kms which is used to extrapolate density for a larger forest area," said Raman Sukumar, Professor, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.
THE MAMMOTH STUDY
- As per the last study of 2012, the population of elephants is estimated to be between 29,000 and 30,711. Besides these wild elephants, around 3,500 elephants are in captivity.
- Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh are home to nearly 40 per cent of the country's jumbo population with more than 12,000 elephants.
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