Elephant to get 'heritage animal' tag
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COMMENTS 
The elephant is to be declared a ‘heritage animal’, in an effort to prevent numbers from dwindling. The initiative is a measure to help protect a species that’s closely associated with India’s culture and heritage
Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has said India is declaring the elephant its ‘National Heritage Animal’ to raise awareness about the species. A government-appointed taskforce has recognised the role elephants play in our culture as well as how they symbolise ecological security, and has asked the government to declare them national heritage animals.
“We will soon declare the elephant as a national heritage animal as it has been part of our heritage since ages. We need to give the same degree of importance to elephants as is being given to tigers, in order to protect the big animal,” Ramesh told the media on August 31, 2010.
The first ever report of the elephant taskforce, titled ‘Gajah -- Securing the Future for Elephants in India,’ submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, recommends rationalising the boundaries of elephant reserves.
“A study of the habitat will be made and presently while it will be slow-go areas it will gradually become no-go areas over time,” Dr Mahesh Rangarajan, environmental historian and professor at the Department of History, Delhi University, who heads the taskforce, said.
India is home to almost one-sixth of the world’s elephants. However, over the years, conflict between man and elephant has increased. Elephant populations are suffering due to shrinking habitats and loss of traditional migratory routes.
Elephant conservation requires habitat protection; recent activities including mining put enormous pressure on habitats. Over the years, more than 400 people have died due to elephant attacks, and over 100 elephants have been killed.
Although overall elephant numbers are not yet critical, it’s the skewed sex ratio that has conservationists worried with years of poaching leaving only 2,000-odd tuskers in a population of 25,000. Only male Asian elephants have tusks, and the poaching of males for their ivory has drastically skewed the sex ratio. “In some places the ratio is down to one male elephant for every 100 females,” said Rangarajan.
The elephant taskforce has recommended a National Elephant Conservation Authority along the lines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
Some key recommendations include:
- Protect 88 elephant corridors from mining, irrigation and other industrial projects.
- The 32 elephant reserves in the country to be designated ‘ecologically sensitive areas’ so that they can receive greater protection under the Environment Protection Act.
- A conflict management taskforce with foresters, scientists and veterinarians should be set up in high-conflict areas.
Although this is only a proposal, it’s a radical one. If adopted it could pit the environment lobby against the industrial lobby in new areas. “We are getting in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and in Jharkhand a lot of new proposals for mining projects that impinge on elephant corridors. We have to look at elephant corridors very seriously,” Ramesh said.
According to Rangarajan, elephants have not received the same attention as tigers and other endangered wildlife, partly because their rate of decline has not been as dramatic. The number of wild elephants in India has stayed about the same over the past decade, but their habitat has continued to decrease.
“With the elephant it is not a crisis of extinction, but a crisis of attrition,” Rangarajan concluded.
Source: DNA, September 1, 2010
Associated Press, September 1, 2010
http://www.ndtv.com, September 1, 2010