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After a few cases in Kerala of atrocities against elephants, a project aims to reduce atrocities against elephants in captivity by collecting blood and faecal samples of the estimated 2,700 captive elephants.
The plan is being carried out under the aegis of Project Elephant.
This exercise, Noyal Thomas, director of Project Elephant told TOI, will give a unique identity number to the elephants “just like an Aadhaar card which will be generated based on their DNA”.
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“Genetic mapping will ensure that captive elephants are only kept by authorised persons after getting a nod from the state chief wildlife warden. Thus, it will ensure that all the captive elephants are under the scanner of the state forest department and incidents of poaching do not take place,” said Thomas.
Presently, most of India’s captive elephants are in Assam (nearly 1,000), followed by Kerala (500) and Tamil Nadu (300).
BCCL
In 2018, genetic mapping was done for the first time in Kerala.
As per Thomas, mapping enables tracking of elephants in need of treatment or food. “It also helps keep a track on its population.”
Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is co-ordinating the exercise.
