Asiatic Elephant
Male Asian elephant in natural environment at
Rajaji National Park, North India
Scientific name: Elephas maximus
Estimated Population
There could be 26,000 elephants in India while the population in entire Asia may be around 50,000.
Habitat and Distribution
Asian Elephants are widely distributed all across the country.WWF-India is focussing its conservation efforts on its major population spread across four landscapes – Nilgiri Eastern Ghats landscape, the northern bank of Brahmaputra, Kaziranga and Karbi-Anglong landscape and areas of western Terai. Their habitat includes tropical moist deciduous forests and tropical dry deciduous forests. As the home range of elephants is large, they need vast tracts of forests, rich in food and water, for survival Elephants are considered a 'flagship' species, whose conservation could help in maintaining the biological diversity and ecological integrity of large forest tracts.
Unique Characteristics
The elephant is the largest terrestrial animal that evolved nearly 60 million years ago. An Asian bull can attain a height of 10 feet and a weight upto five tons. It's tusks can measure upto 6 ft (180 cm) long. The female has small tusks, called tushes. Males without tusks are known as “makhna”. The ears of the Asian elephant are much smaller than the African species, and the trunk tip has one finger. Elephants are purely vegetarian and in a day an adult can eat 200-300 kg of fodder and drink upto 100 litres of water. They travel in family groups, which often assemble in feeding grounds or around waterholes to form large herds. Adult bulls join the group for mating.Males have glands in the temporal areas between the eyes and ears. These glands periodically produce an oily substance known as musth and during these periods the males are excitable and can be dangerous. Such a condition more often coincides with periods of increased sexual activity. Females become sexually mature when they are around 15 years of age. Males at this age are forced to move away from the matriarchal group. Although males are also sexually mature at this age yet they get opportunities to mate only when they are around 30 years and capable of competing with other bulls for estrous females. A single calf is born after a gestation of 18 to 22 months and is nursed for 4 to 5 years. Although a calf is naturally attached to it's mother, other cows in the group care for the calf and allomothering is reported in captivity. Both males and females can live up to 60 - 70 years.
Conservation Challenges
Habitat loss and Conflict with humans
As human populations grow and people settle in areas that were once the sole domain of elephants, human-elephant conflicts are becoming increasingly common leading to retaliatory killings of elephants. At present, this is amongst the biggest threat to the survival of Asian elephants in the wild.
As forest cover becomes fragmented, elephants raid plantations and crop fields in their quest for food or for operating between forest patches. They uproot and scatter other plants, trees, and groundcover as they forage. This puts them in direct conflict with farmers settling in elephant habitat. A single elephant can devastate a small farmer's crop holding in one feeding raid. This makes elephants the target of retaliatory killings, especially when people are injured or killed.
Poaching
Even where suitable habitat exists, poaching remains a threat to elephants. In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) banned the international trade in ivory. However, there are still some thriving but unmonitored domestic ivory markets in a number of Asian and other countries which fuel an illegal international trade.
WWF-India’s involvement
The cornerstone of WWF work is looking at elephant habitat as large tracts of interlinking forests. WWF has been working towards restoring or securing connectivity in habitat landscapes by increased participation of local communities. Conflict mitigation measures like community fencing, non-destructive management of crop-raiding elephants and use of chemical repellants like chilly have been taken up to meet the challenge. Strategic support is being provided to the forest department to implement anti-poaching measures. Moreover, steps are being taken to generate general public and political will.
Other Challenges
Ground challenges include securing habitat corridors, containing poaching and international trade and management of HEC(Human Elephant Conflict).
Estimated Population
There could be 26,000 elephants in India while the population in entire Asia may be around 50,000.
Habitat and Distribution
Asian Elephants are widely distributed all across the country.WWF-India is focussing its conservation efforts on its major population spread across four landscapes – Nilgiri Eastern Ghats landscape, the northern bank of Brahmaputra, Kaziranga and Karbi-Anglong landscape and areas of western Terai. Their habitat includes tropical moist deciduous forests and tropical dry deciduous forests. As the home range of elephants is large, they need vast tracts of forests, rich in food and water, for survival Elephants are considered a 'flagship' species, whose conservation could help in maintaining the biological diversity and ecological integrity of large forest tracts.
Unique Characteristics
The elephant is the largest terrestrial animal that evolved nearly 60 million years ago. An Asian bull can attain a height of 10 feet and a weight upto five tons. It's tusks can measure upto 6 ft (180 cm) long. The female has small tusks, called tushes. Males without tusks are known as “makhna”. The ears of the Asian elephant are much smaller than the African species, and the trunk tip has one finger. Elephants are purely vegetarian and in a day an adult can eat 200-300 kg of fodder and drink upto 100 litres of water. They travel in family groups, which often assemble in feeding grounds or around waterholes to form large herds. Adult bulls join the group for mating.Males have glands in the temporal areas between the eyes and ears. These glands periodically produce an oily substance known as musth and during these periods the males are excitable and can be dangerous. Such a condition more often coincides with periods of increased sexual activity. Females become sexually mature when they are around 15 years of age. Males at this age are forced to move away from the matriarchal group. Although males are also sexually mature at this age yet they get opportunities to mate only when they are around 30 years and capable of competing with other bulls for estrous females. A single calf is born after a gestation of 18 to 22 months and is nursed for 4 to 5 years. Although a calf is naturally attached to it's mother, other cows in the group care for the calf and allomothering is reported in captivity. Both males and females can live up to 60 - 70 years.
Conservation Challenges
Habitat loss and Conflict with humans
As human populations grow and people settle in areas that were once the sole domain of elephants, human-elephant conflicts are becoming increasingly common leading to retaliatory killings of elephants. At present, this is amongst the biggest threat to the survival of Asian elephants in the wild.
As forest cover becomes fragmented, elephants raid plantations and crop fields in their quest for food or for operating between forest patches. They uproot and scatter other plants, trees, and groundcover as they forage. This puts them in direct conflict with farmers settling in elephant habitat. A single elephant can devastate a small farmer's crop holding in one feeding raid. This makes elephants the target of retaliatory killings, especially when people are injured or killed.
Poaching
Even where suitable habitat exists, poaching remains a threat to elephants. In 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) banned the international trade in ivory. However, there are still some thriving but unmonitored domestic ivory markets in a number of Asian and other countries which fuel an illegal international trade.
WWF-India’s involvement
The cornerstone of WWF work is looking at elephant habitat as large tracts of interlinking forests. WWF has been working towards restoring or securing connectivity in habitat landscapes by increased participation of local communities. Conflict mitigation measures like community fencing, non-destructive management of crop-raiding elephants and use of chemical repellants like chilly have been taken up to meet the challenge. Strategic support is being provided to the forest department to implement anti-poaching measures. Moreover, steps are being taken to generate general public and political will.
Other Challenges
Ground challenges include securing habitat corridors, containing poaching and international trade and management of HEC(Human Elephant Conflict).
Key Contact
-
Dipankar Ghose
Head - Eastern Himalaya & Terai
WWF India,
Secretariat+91 11 4150 4782
