Karnataka to gift 12 jumbos to Corbett for patrolling (Nainital, India)

Corbett National Park will get a dozen elephants from Karnataka government for patrol and other purposes free of cost. Out of 13 pachyderms which Corbett authorities used until now for patrolling, seven had died. Saket Badola, deputy director of the national park, said, “It is a very considerate gesture by the state government of Karnataka. We hope that approval will come as soon as possible.” The officials of the forest department had already visited the state and soon a team of doctors too will conduct a medical inspection. A route chart for patrolling elephants will also be prepared after the medical reports of the pachyderms arrive. Elephants help in patrolling the areas of the national park inaccessible by patrolling vehicles. The patrolling elephants are different from the pachyderms which grow in the wild. As per the recent elephant estimation exercise conducted in Uttarakhand in June, Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) emerged as one of the main bastions of elephants with the presence of as many as 1,035 pachyderms being recorded in the reserve. According to the estimation exercise, the state has a total of 1,797 elephants which is an increase of 15% over the last estimate carried out in 2012, when 1,559 elephants were recorded. It is also a rise of almost 33% over the last census of 2007 when 1,346 elephants were counted. Incidentally, the state’s adult male-to-female elephant ratio (there are roughly twice as many females than males) is also one of the healthiest in the world, which indicates that elephant poaching is considerably controlled in Uttarakhand vis-a-vis other elephant-dominated regions like South India where poaching has considerably skewed the sex ratio. The population structure is also encouraging with nearly a fourth of the population under five years of age, which indicates a good breeding potential and a promising future for the pachyderm population in the state, according to officials.