Baffled by the steep fall in the elephant population in Kerala forests, wildlife specialists have suggested publicising the estimation data.
The Kerala Forest department has estimated the wild elephant population at 1,920 individuals against the 3,322 in 2017. As a justification for the fall in numbers, the Forest officials said Kerala forests had witnessed a convergence of elephants in large numbers in 2017 from the nearby States where dry weather had prevailed then. The migrating population of elephants might have added to the total count in Kerala in 2017, they said.
The tiger count in the Wayanad landscape too recorded a fall in numbers.
