{"id":120723,"date":"2026-08-24T12:10:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T06:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=120723"},"modified":"2026-08-24T12:10:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T06:40:41","slug":"elephant-corridors-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/elephant-corridors-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephant Corridors in India: Why They Matter for Conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Elephant Corridors in India Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India directed the Union government to <\/span><b>conduct<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a fresh survey of elephant corridors, ruling that these corridors cannot be blocked over fears of crop damage since elephant herds naturally travel long distances.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bench was hearing an ongoing writ petition on managing human-elephant conflict, which had earlier also sought a ban on using fireballs, spikes, and similar methods to drive elephants away.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Court asked the Centre to report on steps taken to prohibit such &#8220;coercive measures&#8221; that divert elephants&#8217; natural movement.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Why Do Elephants Move Long Distances?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asian elephants are highly mobile, social mammals. A male elephant&#8217;s <\/span><b>home range<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 the area used for food, water, and shelter \u2014 typically spans 50 to 300 square kilometres, expanding further depending on resource availability.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elephants move through their range either in herds or individually, with home ranges varying by habitat type, food and water availability, population density, and human disturbance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to studies by the National Centre for Biological Sciences and the Wildlife Institute of India, elephant movement is strongly shaped by seasonal food and water distribution.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, elephants migrate into Kerala during <\/span><b>dry months<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, drawn to the relatively moist forests of the Western Ghats.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Historically, climate change and drought have also driven such migrations. Corridors are essential to this movement, enabling elephants to find food, disperse naturally, and move seasonally.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But these routes are increasingly disrupted by infrastructure, mining, and farmland expansion.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>India&#8217;s Elephant Landscapes and Population<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has four principal elephant landscapes:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Western Ghats<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 11,934 elephants (53.2%), across Karnataka (6,013), Tamil Nadu (3,136), and Kerala (2,785)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>North-Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra floodplains<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 6,559 elephants (29.2%)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Shivalik Hills and Gangetic plains<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 2,062 elephants (9.2%)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Central India and Eastern Ghats<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 1,891 elephants (8.4%)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India&#8217;s total elephant population stands at 22,446 (SAIEE 2021-25).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Fragmentation of Corridors: Region-Wise Challenges<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Western Ghats:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Once a contiguous elephant habitat, this landscape is rapidly fragmenting due to changing land use, coffee and tea plantations, invasive plant species, and farmland fencing \u2014 a concern flagged in the latest all-India elephant population estimation report.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Shivalik and Brahmaputra plains:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Similar fragmentation has been recorded here, chiefly driven by railway lines, roads, power infrastructure, and other land-use changes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Central India and Eastern Ghats:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This landscape presents the biggest conservation challenge, with elephant numbers rising steadily since the mid-to-late 1980s.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Movement here began with El Ni\u00f1o-linked drought in erstwhile southern Bihar and later intensified due to iron ore mining in Jharkhand and Odisha.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past two decades, elephants have moved into Chhattisgarh from Jharkhand and Odisha owing to habitat loss and mining pressure, further expanding into Umaria and Shahdol (Madhya Pradesh) and Gadchiroli (Maharashtra).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Why Corridors Matter<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Corridors provide more than physical connectivity \u2014 they enable genetic exchange between fragmented elephant populations, maintaining genetic diversity.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They also give elephants access to food and water during seasonal changes, reducing the likelihood of crop raiding and human-elephant conflict.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Corridor Mapping and Key Findings<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government&#8217;s last major corridor-mapping exercise in 2023 documented <\/span><b>150 elephant corridors<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> across 15 States within the four major landscapes.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A subsequent report on human-elephant conflict in South India identified <\/span><b>bottlenecks <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">across 32 corridors in the region, citing highways, railway projects (such as the Bengaluru-Chennai line), hydel projects, high-tension power lines, electric fences, quarries, corridor narrowing, tea and coffee estates, resorts, and ashrams as key obstructions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>West Bengal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recorded the <\/span><b>highest number<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of corridors \u2014 26 across its northern and southern regions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Corridor sizes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> vary widely; the Charmar-Jingol corridor, largely in Chhattisgarh, is a notable example at 20 km long and 2.5 km wide, facilitating movement of an estimated 80-100 elephants from Odisha into Chhattisgarh&#8217;s interior.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elephant corridors are vital lifelines connecting fragmented habitats, enabling seasonal movement, genetic exchange, and reduced human-elephant conflict.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With infrastructure, mining, and land-use change increasingly obstructing these pathways, the Supreme Court&#8217;s intervention signals growing judicial recognition that safeguarding corridors is essential \u2014 not just for elephant conservation, but for long-term conflict mitigation between humans and India&#8217;s largest terrestrial mammal.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/elephant-corridors-india-why-they-matter-supreme-court-explained-10845256\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IE<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> | <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/elephant-habitats-corridors-being-systematically-destroyed-will-to-preserve-absent-ramesh\/article71359813.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TH<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elephant Corridors in India Latest News Recently, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India directed the Union government to conduct a fresh survey of elephant corridors, ruling that these corridors cannot be blocked over fears of crop damage since elephant herds naturally travel long distances.\u00a0 The bench was hearing an ongoing writ &#8230; <a title=\"Elephant Corridors in India: Why They Matter for Conservation\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/elephant-corridors-in-india\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Elephant Corridors in India: Why They Matter for Conservation\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":120743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[9746,60,22,59],"class_list":["post-120723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","tag-elephant-corridors-in-india","tag-mains-articles","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs-tag","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120723"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120758,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120723\/revisions\/120758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}