Terming increasing iron and coal mining activities in some states as biggest threats to elephants in India, the Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday called for people’s involvement in elephant conservation and launched “Haathi Mere Saathi (elephant my companion)” campaign.
“Increasing mining activities especially in central India — Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh — are posing big threats to elephants. We need to mine iron and coal but resources should be extracted without devastating the elephant corridor,” said Jairam and emphasised on the need to bring a greater degree
of sensitivity in coal and iron mining.
He was addressing the ‘Elephant-8 Ministerial Meeting’ comprising eight countries from Africa and Asia, in the national capital.
It was attended by delegates from Botswana, Congo, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Thailand — countries where two-thirds of the world’s wild elephant population is found.
Aiming at involving people in elephant conservation, Jairam also launched the ‘haathi mere saathi’ campaign in partnership with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).
“Elephants are so ingrained in Indian culture and traditions, that sometimes we tend to take them for granted. Unlike the tiger, who faces threat of extinction, the elephant faces threats of attrition.
The elephant numbers have not increased or decreased drastically, but there is increasing pressure on the elephant habitats and it is a serious concern that we will try and address by involving people in elephant conservation and welfare through this campaign,” he said.
Elephants are India’s national heritage animal and is home to over 25,000 Asiatic elephants spread across 88 elephant corridors the country. But despite this seemingly large number, the elephant, particularly the tuskers, in India is as threatened as the tiger because there are just about 1,200 tuskers left in
the country.
“Securing elephant corridors is very difficult compared to securing protected and reserve area as there is huge demographic pressure. We need to look at new ways of securing it,” he added.
