NEW DELHI: India’s wild elephant population estimates have dropped sharply by a quarter, a government survey incorporating a new DNA system has found, marking the most accurate but sobering count yet.
India is home to the majority of the world’s remaining wild Asian elephants, a species listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and increasingly threatened by shrinking habitat.
The Wildlife Institute of India’s new All-India Elephant Estimation report released this week puts the wild elephant population at 22,446 – down from nearly 29,964 estimated in 2017, a fall of 25 percent.
The survey drew on genetic analysis of more than 21,000 dung samples, alongside a vast network of camera traps and 667,000 kilometers (414,400 miles) of foot surveys.
But researchers said the methodological overhaul meant the results were “not comparable to past figures and may be treated as a new monitoring baseline.”
