The Union Environment Ministry has released a report titled “Elephant Corridors of India”.
Key findings
- India has at least 150 elephant corridors spanning 15 range-states across four elephant-bearing regions.
- West Bengal tops the list with 26 such land strips.
- Earlier, the central government’s 2010 Elephant Task Force report (Gajah report) had listed 88 corridors in the country.
- The latest report also highlights that the intensity of elephant use has increased in 59 of these corridors, remained stable in 29 and decreased in 29 others.
- Of the total corridors, 15 have been impaired and require restoration efforts to restore functionality.
- An elephant corridor is a land strip facilitating the movement of elephants between two or more viable habitat patches.
- Corridors leading the animals away from forest habitats into the human domain without connecting to viable habitat patches are not considered true elephant corridors.
- There are around 30,000 elephants in India, which account for 60 per cent of the animal’s global population.
- West Bengal leads with the highest number of elephant corridors in India, accounting for over 17 per cent of the total such land patches in the country, the report states.
