News Highlights:
Statutory body for elephant safety: Recently, The Supreme Court asked the Union government to respond to a recommendation made in the 2010 ‘Gajah Report’ on conferring statutory status to the National Elephant Conservation Authority (NECA) to ensure the preservation of elephant corridors.
Gajah Report:
- About:
- The report lays out a comprehensive action agenda for protecting elephants in the wild and captivity and for addressing human-elephant conflict.
- The recommendations submitted in the Gajah report recommended that ‘Project Elephant’ be converted into a statutory agency.
Project Elephant:
- About:
- Project Elephant is a Central Government sponsored scheme launched in February 1992.
- Through the Project Elephant scheme, the government helps protect and manage elephants in the states having wild elephants with a free-ranging population.
- It ensures the protection of elephant corridors and habitats for the elephant population’s survival in the wild.
- Implementation:
- This elephant conservation strategy is mainly implemented in 16 of 28 states or union territories in the country, including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
- The union government provides technical and financial help to these states to carry out and achieve the goals of project elephant.
- Assistance for the census and training of field officials is also provided to ensure the mitigation and prevention of man-elephant conflict.
- Objectives:
- To ensure the Welfare of domesticated elephants
- Protection of elephants, their habitats and elephant corridors.
- Mitigation and prevention of human-elephant conflict.
- Measures taken:
- To develop and promote scientific and planned management strategies for Elephant conservation.
- To prevent the illegal trade of ivory and ensure elephant protection from hunters and poachers.
- Develop strategies to prevent unnatural causes of elephant death in India.
- Ensure ecological restoration of the natural elephant habitats and their migratory routes.
- To mitigate and prevent the increasing conflict in elephant habitats between humans and elephants.
- Reduce and remove domestic livestock grazing, the pressure of humans and their activities in important elephant habitats.
- Promote scientific research on issues related to elephant conservation and educate the public on these issues.
- To facilitate veterinary care for proper breeding and health care of domesticated elephants and Eco-development for the elephants.
Conclusion:
- The government of India in the year 2010 declared elephants as the national heritage animal of the country on the recommendations of the standing committee of the national board for wildlife.
- This was done to ensure sufficient elephant protection before their numbers fell to panic levels, like in the case of tigers.
- A proposed National elephant conservation authority (NECA) in line with NTCA has been proposed to be constituted by amending the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
Pic courtesy: Freepik
Content Source: The Print