The genetic profiling of the 400-odd captive elephants of the State will begin shortly. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which is carrying out the profiling to add the details of the elephants to a national database, has provided the forensic kits to the Kerala Forest department.
The department has entrusted assistant conservators (social forestry) in the districts with the responsibility of collecting blood and dung samples of the animals in their respective areas. An online training programme has also been planned for the forest officials on April 5 and 6 on sample collection, and updating the reports. The sample collection is expected to begin during the second week of April.
Festival season
Incidentally, the sample collection comes during the peak of the temple festival season of Kerala, when the captive elephants will be taken to different temples in the State for parading.
With around 25 elephant deaths taking place in Kerala annually, the number of captive elephants in the State has reached an all-time low of 407. Kerala was once considered the home to the largest population of captive elephants.
The profiling of the captive elephants has been completed in a few States. It is estimated that there are around 3,000 captive elephants in the country.
The photograph of individual animals and their physical details, including height, will be entered into the database along with their genetic features.
Gaja Suchana
The officials of all the State Forest departments in the country can access the data through a mobile application, Gaja Suchana, developed by the institute. The profiling is carried out to keep track of the transfer of captive elephants within and between the States.
The database will help identify the animals without a valid ownership certificate. The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change intends to curb the illegal practice of transferring animals. The profiling will also help in ensuring the welfare of the animals, according to Samrat Mondal of the Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology department of the WII.
The Ministry had last month came out with the Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024.
Incidentally, the Kerala Forest department conducted the DNA profiling of elephants in the State with the support of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, in 2019.
