<p>A three-day National Elephant Census will begin on May 22 in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, simultaneously.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The synchronised census, taken up once in five years, will be conducted throughout the country, following a directive issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.<br /><br />Unlike the Elephant Reserve Census, where enumeration is restricted to counting of pachyderms in reserve forests, the synchronised census will be conducted in forest, non-forest, reserve and non-reserve forest areas (landscape-wise), said Ajay Mishra, Chief Conservator of Forests, Project Elephant, Karnataka.<br /><br />As a preparatory exercise, senior officers of the Forest Department participated in a workshop conducted by elephant experts Raman Sukumar, Ajai Desai, M D Madhusudan, Surendra Varma and others, in Bandipur on May 10.<br /><br />Dipak Sarmah, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, said the department was issued guidelines for conducting the census.<br /><br />“The workshop also included a field demonstration. Ground-level training will be imparted to the forest officials and volunteers taking part in the census,” he said.<br /><br />The census will be conducted using three methods — block count, line transect dung count and waterhole count, said Surendra Varma, research scientist, Asian Nature Conservation Foundation.<br /><br />The focus will be on estimating the elephant population during the particular season (with statistical confidence limits); number of elephants in broad age groups (adult, sub-adult, juvenile and calf); the ratio of males to females (bulls and cows) in respect of adult and sub-adult categories; the number of tuskers in respect of adult and sub-adult categories.<br /><br />Wanted: ‘Good volunteers’<br /><br />Varma said discipline was imperative for conducting the census. And to achieve this, it would be important to restrict the number of volunteers. <br /><br />“If volunteers are involved, only one of them should be allowed per block or beat. More volunteers may result in counting more elephants. However, they can also become a source of disturbance in detecting and counting elephants. Volunteers should understand they aren’t going out for a picnic,” added Varma.<br /><br />He said the department should focus on selecting volunteers “who are fit, knowledgeable, those who aren’t overly enthusiastic, and those with good cameras”.<br /><br />“It will be helpful if the volunteers can share their photographs with the department at the end of the day’s exercise,” he said.<br /><br />Counting will be done on May 22, 23 and 24 between 7 am and 5 pm.<br /><br />Jumbo headcount 2007<br /><br />Region Habitat (km) Corridors 2007 census<br />Northeast 41,000 36 9,330<br />North 5,500 12 1,726<br />East-central 23,500 20 2,633<br />South 39,500 20 14,005<br />Total 1,09,500 88 27,694<br /><br />Note: Statistics published in the article ‘Current Status of Asian Elephants in India’ 2012 issue of journal ‘Gajah’. Authors - N Baskaran, Surendra Varma, C K Sar and Raman Sukumar.</p>
<p>A three-day National Elephant Census will begin on May 22 in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, simultaneously.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The synchronised census, taken up once in five years, will be conducted throughout the country, following a directive issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.<br /><br />Unlike the Elephant Reserve Census, where enumeration is restricted to counting of pachyderms in reserve forests, the synchronised census will be conducted in forest, non-forest, reserve and non-reserve forest areas (landscape-wise), said Ajay Mishra, Chief Conservator of Forests, Project Elephant, Karnataka.<br /><br />As a preparatory exercise, senior officers of the Forest Department participated in a workshop conducted by elephant experts Raman Sukumar, Ajai Desai, M D Madhusudan, Surendra Varma and others, in Bandipur on May 10.<br /><br />Dipak Sarmah, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, said the department was issued guidelines for conducting the census.<br /><br />“The workshop also included a field demonstration. Ground-level training will be imparted to the forest officials and volunteers taking part in the census,” he said.<br /><br />The census will be conducted using three methods — block count, line transect dung count and waterhole count, said Surendra Varma, research scientist, Asian Nature Conservation Foundation.<br /><br />The focus will be on estimating the elephant population during the particular season (with statistical confidence limits); number of elephants in broad age groups (adult, sub-adult, juvenile and calf); the ratio of males to females (bulls and cows) in respect of adult and sub-adult categories; the number of tuskers in respect of adult and sub-adult categories.<br /><br />Wanted: ‘Good volunteers’<br /><br />Varma said discipline was imperative for conducting the census. And to achieve this, it would be important to restrict the number of volunteers. <br /><br />“If volunteers are involved, only one of them should be allowed per block or beat. More volunteers may result in counting more elephants. However, they can also become a source of disturbance in detecting and counting elephants. Volunteers should understand they aren’t going out for a picnic,” added Varma.<br /><br />He said the department should focus on selecting volunteers “who are fit, knowledgeable, those who aren’t overly enthusiastic, and those with good cameras”.<br /><br />“It will be helpful if the volunteers can share their photographs with the department at the end of the day’s exercise,” he said.<br /><br />Counting will be done on May 22, 23 and 24 between 7 am and 5 pm.<br /><br />Jumbo headcount 2007<br /><br />Region Habitat (km) Corridors 2007 census<br />Northeast 41,000 36 9,330<br />North 5,500 12 1,726<br />East-central 23,500 20 2,633<br />South 39,500 20 14,005<br />Total 1,09,500 88 27,694<br /><br />Note: Statistics published in the article ‘Current Status of Asian Elephants in India’ 2012 issue of journal ‘Gajah’. Authors - N Baskaran, Surendra Varma, C K Sar and Raman Sukumar.</p>
