States » NorthPosted at: Jun 26 2025 11:38PM


Union Forest minister calls for minimising human-elephant conflict

Dehradun, Jun 26 (UNI) Union Minister for Environment Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav on Thursday asked the officials to ensure systematic data collection of elephant death figures owing to the railway accidents.
He directed the officials to put in place best practices and action plan to prevent human-elephant conflicts and railway accidents resulting into their deaths.
Chairing the 21st Steering Committee Meeting of Project Elephant in Dehradun Bhupendra Yadav stressed on the need for strong action plans for conservation of elephants and prevention of human elephant conflicts across the country.
He asked his officials and institutions engaged in elephant conservation to systematically collect and analyse data on elephant deaths caused by railway accidents in the country. Yadav directed the officials to dwell on importance of knowledge sharing among states, institutions and experts and scale up best practices of conservation of pachyderms in the different regions. He said that elephant deaths due to railway accidents need to be mitigated with adequate planning and action Plans.
Yadav called for coordinated efforts with Indian Railways, Ministry of Power, NHAI and mine developers to reduce human-wildlife conflict. He emphasized that the institutions like Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and State Forest Training institutions must work together to ensure effective implementation of awareness and outreach programmes.
Talking about the initiatives and plans of reducing the human elephant conflicts officials informed the minister that survey work of around 3452.4 kilometers of sensitive railway stretches with 77 high-risk areas identified for mitigation was over while action plans on human-elephant conflict in Southern and North-Eastern India was in progress. It was also informed in the meeting that DNA profiling of captive elephants that yielded1,911 genetic profiles was completed in 22 States. Committee noted that over 16,500 elephant dung samples were collected in Phase-I synchronized elephant population estimation programm in the North-Eastern States. Besides this elephant experts and officials in the meet informed that substantial progress has been made in the Model Elephant Conservation Plan (ECP) for the Nilgiri Elephant Reserve likely to be finalised by December 2025.
Some Important documents and reports were released during the meeting. These included a report on measures suggesting mitigation of elephant-train collisions and a comprehensive study on 23 years of human-elephant conflict in Assam, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Also an advisory on safe tusk trimming practices for captive elephants was also released in the meeting.
The meeting attended by senior officials, scientists and field experts from elephant range states along with representatives from key conservation institutions, focussed mainly on progress of Project Elephant and to deliberate on the way forward for elephant conservation in India. It laid emphasis on human-elephant conflict which continues to pose a significant challenge to human safety and elephant conservation. The discussions also focussed on community involvement in managing human-elephant conflict.
Committee also discussed upcoming tasks for conservation of elephants in various parts of the country. It was shared that action plan for three-year elephant tracking study in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve was underway. Management Effectiveness Evaluations (MEE) in elephant reserves and an integrated conservation strategy for Ripu-Chirang Elephant Reserve focusing on Udalguri landscape were also discussed in the meet.
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