KOCHI: Amidst the increasing man- animal conflict which has led to wide spread protests in the high ranges, a statewide enumeration conducted by forest department revealed that the wild elephant population has declined by 58.19% in Kerala over the past five years.
As per the enumeration conducted in 2017, Kerala had 5,706 wild elephants, but the population declined to 2,386 in 2023.
Meanwhile, an enumeration of tiger population in Wayanad wildlife sanctuary revealed that the population of the striped big cat has come down to 84. In 2018, Wayanad wildlife sanctuary had 120 tigers.
Revealing the enumeration figures at a press meet in Thiruvananthapuram, forest minister A K Saseendran said the reason for the drastic decline in elephant population could be migration to Karnataka forests. The enumeration was conducted
across all south Indian states from May 17 to 19, 2023.
The elephant census was conducted during the same period in 2017. According to authorities, climate plays a significant role in elephant migration. During the 2017 enumeration, elephants had migrated to Kerala as dry weather prevailed in Karnataka. This time, it was raining in Karnataka and the temperature was high in Kerala.
"The elephant enumeration was conducted adopting the block count and dung count method. In block count, the state forests were divided into 610 sample blocks of an average area of 5.78 sq km. In block count 1,920 elephants were counted and the population density was 0.20 per sq km. The total forest area with elephant population is 9,622.33 sq km of which 36.46% has been surveyed," the minister said.
As part of dung count 2,386 elephants were counted and the population density was 0.25 per sq km. During the 2017 enumeration 3,322 wild elephants were sighted in block count while 5,706 elephants were estimated in dung count. As many
as 251 elephant herds were lcoated during the block count and 700 wild elephants were part of these herds.
As part of the tiger enumeration 297 camera traps were installed in Wayanad sanctuary, Aralam and Kottiyoor forests. From the 297 ntraps images of 84 tiogers were collected from 160 locations. Of the 84 tigers, 69 were in Wayanad sanctuary while 8 were in North Wayanad division and 7 in South Wayanad division.
Of the 84 tigers 45 (54%) were enumerated in 2016, 2018 and 2022 and 39 tigers (46%) were sighted for the first time. The analysis identified 29 male tigers and 47 females. The gender of 8 tigers could not be confirmed. . The density of tiger in wayanad landscape is 7.7 per 100 sq km, which is healthy, said Minister Saseendran.