Jumbo task: Elephant census gets underway

Belagavi: Have the jumbo numbers gone up? This will be known during the massive elephant census launched by the forest department in the dense forests of Khanapur and Goa region to ascertain the number of elephants that are regularly found there. As many as 92 people are involved in the four-day long census survey, who will be assisted by elephant experts in Khanapur forest alone.

The census has been simultaneously taken up across the country to ascertain the exact number of elephants present in various forest belts. Before the start of work, most forest officials have undergone a training session conducted by experts. Apart from the elephant count, information about age, sex and size of the pachyderms will also be obtained during the census, sources in the forest department said.

After identifying the areas in forests where movement of elephants happens regularly, the teams will take up an operation to find the number of animals. After the initial general count , the jumbos will be separated based on their sex and later divided into three different sections based on their size and age. 

Initially, a beat system has been created to conduct the census in a phased manner in Khanapur. An attempt will be made to  find the number of elephants which moved in Khanapur forests in the last five years starting 2012. Most elephants in Khanapur actually come from forests in Maharashtra and the movement of these elephants continues regularly in Khanapur from September to January every year, sources said.