Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh has an elephant population ranging between 142–148, a census carried out in the four southern states of Tamil Naidu, Karnataka, Kerala and AP has revealed.
Centre had called on the four states to together carry out the exercise of enumerating the number of elephants in the southern region. Such an exercise had been done to avoid duplication, as elephants move from place to place over states, sometimes covering hundreds of kilometres.
AP forest authorities found the presence of pachyderms mainly in Chittoor, Tirupati and Annamayya districts. They counted the elephant population based on direct sighting and dung count. Of the total 142–148 count, 51 elephants had been visibly counted and the remaining numbers based on their dung count.
There is no standard practice available for elephant census, except for block counting; similar to the tiger census. Forest authorities of the four states carried out a synchronised census to find out the number of elephants present in their respective states.
Additional principal conservator of forests Shantipriya Pande said for the count, they developed an in-house app called “Gaja.” The main objective of taking up the elephant census is to find out their population size and areas of their presence. They used a drone survey, along with thermal sensing, to identify the movement of elephants, mainly along the elephant corridors of Chittoor, Tirupati and Annamayya districts.
Authorities carried out an awareness drive, especially in elephant trouble-prone areas, for the benefit of mainly farmers, people and also officials of stakeholder departments. Foresters requested these segments to download the Gaja app on their mobile phones. This would give them alerts on their mobile phones on the movement of elephant herds. They can avoid such areas and be safe.
In case elephants damage crops, the app helps locate the damaged crops and owners of those fields, so that forest authorities can pay compensation to the farmers concerned.
When it comes to the electricity department, herds of pachyderms may damage electrical equipment like overhead transmission lines and transformers. The app helps locate the damage and also alerts power officials not to move in that direction where elephants are roaming.
