In June 2025, Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) chaired the 21st Steering Committee Meeting of Project Elephant, held at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGFA) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
- The meeting brought together senior officials, scientists, and field experts from elephant range states, along with representatives from various conservation institutions.
- They reviewed the progress of key initiatives under the ‘Project Elephant’ and deliberated on the way forward for elephant conservation in India.
Highlights of the meeting:
i.The committee emphasized on human-elephant conflict which continues to pose a major challenge to human safety and elephant conservation. The discussions focused on community involvement in managing human-elephant conflict.
ii.During the meeting, Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav urged for coordinated efforts with Indian Railways (IR), Ministry of Power (MoP), National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and mine-developers to mitigate human-wildlife conflict.
iii.During the meeting it was highlighted that as part of the Government of India (GoI)’s plans to reduce elephant morality due to collisions with trains, 3,452.4 kilometer (km) of sensitive railway stretches were surveyed and 77 high-risk areas were identified for mitigation.
iv.The Committee noted that Phase-I of the synchronized elephant population estimation in the North-Eastern (NE) states had been completed, with more than 16,500 dung samples collected.
v.It reviewed the progress of DNA profiling of captive elephants, with 1,911 genetic profiles completed across 22 states of the country.
Conservation Planning & Publications:
i.The Committee reviewed the preparation of Regional Action Plans on Human-Elephant Conflict in Southern and NE India.
- It also reviewed the progress of the Model Elephant Conservation Plan (ECP) for the Nilgiri Elephant Reserve in Kadanad, Tamil Nadu(TN), which is expected to be finalized by December 2025.
ii.Also, important documents were released during the meeting: a report on suggested measures to mitigate Elephant-Train collisions; a comprehensive study on 23 years of human-elephant conflict in states like: Assam, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh;
- An advisory on safe tusk trimming practices for captive elephants, and the latest edition of Trumpet, the project elephant quarterly newsletter.
Upcoming Initiatives:
i.The committee discussed preparations for the World Elephant Day celebrations on August 12, 2025, which is scheduled to be held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu (TN), where the Gaj Awards will also be presented.
ii.The committee outlined key upcoming actions for the conservation of Elephant and these are: finalization of the Nilgiri ECP, initiation of a 3-year elephant tracking study in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (TR) in Umaria district, Madhya Pradesh (MP),
- Conducting Management Effectiveness Evaluations (MEE) in Elephant Reserves with CAMPA support, and the development of an integrated conservation strategy for the Ripu-Chirang Elephant Reserve in Assam, with a focus on the Udalguri landscape.
Note: The Standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) which was also held under the chairmanship of Union Minister Yadav recommended the inclusion of sloth bear and gharial in MoEF&CC’s Species Recovery Programme.
About Project Elephant :
i.In 1992, GoI introduced Project Elephant as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), aimed to preserve habitat and establish elephant corridors across the country.
ii.The last elephant census was conducted in 2017 which found that India was home to nearly 29,964 elephants.
About Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC):
Union Minister- Bhupendra Yadav (Constituency- Alwar, Rajasthan)
Minister of State (MoS)- Kirti Vardhan Singh (Constituency- Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, UP)
