Framework of elephant reserve management

The Assam Elephant Census Report, 2024, offered hope of resilient growth in the state’s elephant population, even as Human Elephant Conflict (HEC) spreads to wider areas across landscapes. Strengthening the legal protection of elephant reserves in the state remains critical to sustaining this positive growth in the elephant population. The notification and management of elephant reserves, which are a core component of Project Elephant, led to the establishment of five elephant reserves in the state. As the census shows, 82% of the state’s elephant population is located in these five reserves, making the protection of their habitats essential for achieving the key goal of Project Elephant—the long-term survival of elephants in their natural environments. The ‘Framework for Preparation of the Elephant Conservation Plan for the Elephant Reserves’, prepared by the Project Elephant & Wildlife Institute of India, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, has highlighted the formidable challenges faced in managing the elephant reserves. Implementation of this framework for drawing the conservation plan is crucial for creating a sustainable landscape for the elephants to move securely in their habitat and reduce HEC. The framework underscores the importance of integrating the different planning processes for protected areas, tiger reserves, and the surrounding buffer areas such as ecosensitive zones and reserved forests. Integrating the various guidelines for the conservation and management of composite elephant reserves is challenging due to the differing policy prescriptions, legal provisions, and land use patterns that guide the management plans for each of these areas. The framework document points out that in most cases, the elephant landscape will include biodiversity-rich areas, such as global hotspots, unique endemic species, wetlands, and marshes, with protected areas at its core, surrounded by managed forests and lands that extend to agricultural rural landscapes and urban settings, along with networks of linear infrastructures. The potential of an elephant reserve to conserve and manage all biological, ecological, and socio-economic attributes faces many challenges in conservation planning, which requires the identification of specific areas or zones; this process is critical for the conservation of species and ecological processes, highlighting the difficulties involved. Nonetheless, while bundling protected areas with different regulatory regimes for each creates a legally binding statutory boundary for an elephant reserve, mapping its ecological boundary is vital for preparing a meticulous conservation plan for the entire landscape. Each approach facilitates the demarcation of a legally binding statutory boundary for an elephant reserve; additionally, mapping its ecological boundary is essential for creating a detailed conservation plan for the entire landscape. The census report reveals that the Chirang-Ripu Elephant Reserve in the state has the highest density at 79 elephants per 100 sq km, highlighting its critical role in elephant population conservation, while the “extremely low density” of only 6 elephants per 100 sq km in Dhansiri-Lungding Elephant Reserve “highlights severe challenges, including habitat fragmentation, human disturbances, and perhaps even underreporting due to the difficult terrain of the region.” In an elephant reserve with such extremely low density, it is most likely that during an environmental impact study, elephants in a particular area under the reserve may be missed, and information could be used to grant approval to a linear infrastructure project or other developmental projects involving forest diversion aggravating the problem of habitat fragmentation and deepening of the HEC crisis. Such complexities often remain veiled unless the census findings of positive growth from 5719 elephants in 2017 to 5828 in 2024 are read alongside the drastic ecological changes driven by increasing human interference. The framework reveals a worrying gap in the notification of elephant reserves: the state government has prepared maps of the elephant reserves without defining their boundaries.  Addressing “any inadequacies in the boundary demarcation relating to administrative, legal, ecological, or resource use” as recommended in the framework is critical for strengthening conservation and management of the five reserves in the state. If public discourse on elephant conservation focuses solely on HEC incident reporting and mitigation measures, without addressing the broader issues of conservation and scientific management of elephant reserves, the state will struggle to achieve the goals of Project Elephant, even with positive population growth.  The framework document suggests prioritising three focused interventions to strengthen stakeholder participation: involving local communities living around the elephant reserve in decision-making processes to build a sense of responsibility for elephant conservation; integrating indigenous knowledge about elephants into conservation strategies while collaborating with local communities to blend traditional practices with modern approaches; and partnering with NGOs and conservation groups to leverage expertise, resources, and community outreach for collaborative conservation projects and initiatives. While the framework provides an elaborate strategy, roadmap and approach for the conservation of elephant reserves, its true test will be effective on-ground implementation.