Falling numbers demand measures to save tuskers

The state of Asian elephant estimation 2025 conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India for the country reveals that the population has come down from 29,964 in 2017 to 22,446 in 2025. The methodology for the census has undergone a change and for the first time DNA-based mark capture-recapture and scientifically peer-reviewed methodology has been deployed. A similar methodology has been used for tiger estimation every four years from 2007. Prior to 2007, the tiger census was being done using the pug-mark method and the total number of tigers in the country was reported to be 20,000 plus.

- BY BK SINGH

Indian elephants

When peer reviewed mark capture-recapture methodology (stripes of two individual tigers are different) was adopted, tiger numbers drastically came down to 1,411. Poaching did not account for such a steep decline; the earlier census method was flawed and states used to boost the figures to show higher tiger numbers, to indicate a better conservation strategy and to get themselves a pat on the back. Human deaths in conflict with elephants are far higher than deaths in tiger related conflicts. Though the Union Government launched Project Elephant in 1992, the elephant census was done by states duly coordinating with adjoining states. Project Elephant finally collated states’ data and published statewide/ landscape wise population figures.

Two methodologies adopted for the census were block count and dung count. The block count method often tends to overestimate the number, while the elephant dung count method comes up with a more accurate number. By walking along transects, an observer can find elephant defecation rate as well as dung decay rate. Generally it takes three months for elephants’ dung to decay; the period varies in different eco-climatic zones. Both methods are incomplete without a water hole count for elephants, needed to determine the composition of male, female, calf, adult, sub-adult, tuskers etc in the herd. Tigers and elephants often share common habitats.