Baffled by the steep fall in the elephant population in Kerala forests, wildlife specialists have suggested publicising the estimation data.
The Kerala Forest department has estimated the wild elephant population at 1,920 individuals against the 3,322 in 2017. As a justification for the fall in numbers, the Forest officials said Kerala forests had witnessed a convergence of elephants in large numbers in 2017 from the nearby States where dry weather had prevailed then. The migrating population of elephants might have added to the total count in Kerala in 2017, they said.
The tiger count in the Wayanad landscape too recorded a fall in numbers.
R. Sukumar, Honorary Professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, found common ground in the migration theory put forward by the Forest department.
“2016 was a rainfall-deficit year and there existed the possibility of animals concentrating in the moist areas of the Western Ghats, namely Kerala, during the early months of 2017. However, one needs to go through the full report of the recent estimation to understand the methodology adopted and the analysis of data to understand the reasons for the reported fall in numbers. The possibility of biased sampling in 2017 also cannot be ruled out,” said Dr. Sukumar, who is also a member of the National Board for Wildlife.
P.O. Nameer, Professor, Department of Wildlife Science, College of Forestry, Vellanikkara, suggested involving the public and volunteers in the estimation to ensure transparency and accountability in the process. The department shall release the full report of the estimation and not just the figures for an independent evaluation of the data, he suggested.
Ganga Singh, Chief Wildlife Warden, Kerala, while highlighting the elephant migration theory, said the report would be released in the public domain shortly. Steps for accurate collection of data and analysis were adopted. However, the possibility of errors in the assessment carried out earlier, which might have reflected in the high number of elephants, cannot be ruled out, he said.
