Context:

The Maharashtra government is awaiting a nod from the Centre for the state’s first elephant reserve.

More on the news

• Authorities from the Nawegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve located in Maharashtra’s eastern Vidarbha region had drafted a proposal in August 2023 to declare over 1,400 square kilometers in Gondia and Gadchiroli districts as an elephant reserve.
  It was channelized via the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), Maharashtra.
• The decision to have a dedicated elephant reserve was taken after elephants from Chhattisgarh and Odisha were spotted crossing over into Maharashtra in 2021.
• The elephant population in Maharashtra is currently low, it is expected to grow, given that other mega-herbivores are absent and forested habitats are available.
  Increasing populations of elephants via births and more migration from Chhattisgarh will cause further increase in the state.

Current status of Elephants in India:

• From 2000 onwards, elephants slowly expanded their range from Odisha into Chhattisgarh and the population in the state increased from 24 animals in 2000 to 279 in 2021.
• The Central Indian landscape provides conducive habitats for elephants, with a network of Protected Areas.
• According to experts, human-elephant conflict and habitat feasibility should be considered before a reserve is declared.
• India in the year 1992, launched Project Elephant as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with objectives to protect elephants, their habitat & corridors.
• So far 33 Elephant Reserves have been established in 14 major elephant States.

About Elephants:

• Elephants are the world’s largest land animals.
• Elephants are a keystone species and play an important role in maintaining the biodiversity of the ecosystems in which they live.
• Threats: Poaching, habitat loss, climate change, Human-elephant conflict etc.
• Karnataka has the highest elephant population in India.

Two types of species of elephant are Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and the African elephant (Loxodonta africana).

• The current wild distribution of Asian Elephants is in 13 countries.
• All populations of Asian elephants are included in CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Appendix I.
• It is included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• The global status of the Asian species in the IUCN Red List is listed as Endangered. 

The Sumatran Elephants (E. m. sumatranus) are listed as Critically Endangered.
IUCN has declared African Forest and Savanna (or bush) elephants as ‘critically endangered’ and ‘endangered’ respectively.