Sustaining that its current elephant inhabitants estimation train was “extra exact” than the earlier surveys, the Forest division has stood by its migration idea to clarify the autumn in elephant inhabitants, with their habitats in Kerala being contiguous with the forests of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu sharing an inter-State boundary size of 957 km.
Whereas each block depend and dung depend strategies had been adopted for the train, it estimated populations of 1,920 and a couple of,386 elephants respectively. These had been considerably decrease than the respective counts estimated utilizing the 2 strategies in 2017 – 3,322 and 5,706.
Whereas the sharp fall in inhabitants raised eyebrows, forest officers attributed the excessive numbers over the past version to unscientific sampling.
In its Elephant Inhabitants Estimation in Kerala 2023 report, accessed by The Hindu, the division emphasises the significance of making certain care whereas deciding on pattern blocks for the direct depend technique in an effort to be certain that it’s a true illustration of the realm.
Whereas the manageable sizes of the consultant pattern blocks are ideally between 4 sq km to six sq km, a few of the sampling blocks used in the course of the earlier estimations had been both outsized or undersized, thereby creating the potential of inaccurate estimation. Samples blocks as giant as 8-10 sq km and much more had been chosen in the course of the earlier estimations, the report acknowledged.
The present estimates, it added, are extra exact as a result of fine-tuned strategies adopted in the course of the survey corresponding to rationalisation of blocks with manageable sizes, cautious choice of non-adjoining blocks that prevented double counts and the usage of digital maps to obviously perceive pattern block boundaries even throughout area work.
Bolstering its inferences, the division factors out {that a} extreme drought in Tamil Nadu had resulted in a mass motion of elephants to the wetter forests of adjoining States from 2016. This was mirrored within the increased numbers recorded in the course of the inhabitants estimation in 2017.
Mortalities
The research additionally highlighted the deaths of 678 elephants between 2015 to 2022, with a excessive mortality price being noticed amongst calves and juveniles. Whereas 275 of those had been aged lower than 10 years, as many as 155 had been aged between 10 years and 20 years.
The excessive price of deaths amongst younger pachyderms aged lower than 10 years is suspected to be as a result of prevalence of elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) or elephantid betaherpesvirus 1 (ElHV-1) amongst wild elephants.
The report additionally cited research carried out in Asia that exposed that round 80% mortality brought on by EEHV or ElHV-1 had been present in calves aged under eight years. The division has known as for exploring confirmed therapies to be adopted to minimise such deaths.
Whereas the forests in Kerala are divided into 4 elephant reserves, viz., Wayanad, Nilambur, Anamudi and Periyar, the best abundance of elephants was seen within the Periyar elephant reserve.
