Chennai 03 :- The population of wild elephants in Tamil Nadu has increased by a little above 100 this year when compared to the figures recorded last year, revealed a recent elephant census.
According to the elephant census report released by Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday, the State has an estimated 3,063 jumbos in the wild. In the 2023 census, the number was 2,961 elephants.
The three-day synchronised Elephant Population Estimation was conducted in the forest areas of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh from May 23.
In Tamil Nadu, the population estimation of elephants was conducted in 681 blocks spread across 26 forest divisions. As many as 2,178 personnel, including anti-poaching watchers, forest watchers, forest guards, foresters, and rangers, and volunteers from NGOs, were involved in this survey.
During the census, more than 8,652 kilometres were covered by foot.
As per the report, elephants in the State have sex ratio of 1 male to 2.03 females and density of 0.37 elephant per sqkm. Among the 26 divisions, Sathyamangalam division has the highest number of elephants, 372, followed by Coimbatore forest division with 336 elephants.
The census also revealed that 40 per cent of the total elephants are adults, while 33 per cent are sub-adults. Among the remaining, 17 per cent are juveniles and 10 per cent are calves.
The State had an estimated elephant population of 3,737 during the census conducted in 2002. In 2007 and 2012, the numbers rose to 3,867 and 4,015 respectively, before falling to 2,761 in 2017.
It may be noted that the State has a total elephant habitat of 8,989.63 sqkm across the 26 forest ranges. Tamil Nadu has five elephant reserves in Nilgiris Eastern Ghats, Coimbatore, Anamalai, Srivilliputhur and Agasthyamalai.
Of these, Nilgiris Eastern Ghats has the highest population of 2,253, followed by Coimbatore reserve with 323 elephants. Anamalai reserve has 310 elephants, Agasthyamalai reserve has 259, and Srivilliputhur 227.
Human deaths also on the rise:
The number of human fatalities due to elephants in Tamil Nadu has increased to 61 deaths in 2023-24 from 43 in 2022-23.
As per the numbers disclosed in the Parliament, 2019-20 witnessed 58 human fatalities while it was 57 deaths in in 2020-21. In 2021-22, as many as 37 persons died due to elephant attacks.
