World Elephant Day will be celebrated on Friday bringing into focus the challenging task of ensuring the jumbos’ conservation amidst habitat destruction and disturbance and the resultant increase in human-elephant conflict.
This is particularly true in the South Karnataka region which has the highest concentration of elephants in the State that harboured nearly 6,049 free ranging elephants in the wild as per the 2017 census results.
While an increase in elephant numbers ushers in a ray of hope that their population was not tottering on the brink of extinction it also creates apprehension of the possible increase in conflict situation due to habitat disturbance and destruction by linear projects.