Status of Elephants in India: DNA based Synchronous All India population estimation of elephants (SAIEE) 2021-2025

FOCUS

The report presents estimates on elephant population in India using DNA-based mark-recapture. The technique entails using genetic data taken from small sources of animal DNA to identify individual animals. Published by the Wildlife Institute of India on October 14, 2025, the report provides a new baseline for monitoring the status of elephants in the country. It also provides data for upcoming research and  conservation policies aiming to prevent habitat shrinkage and human-elephant conflicts.

Overall, the survey identifies 22,446 Asian elephants at the national level. The SAIEE 2021-25 programme followed a framework similar to that used for monitoring tigers and captured information from 400,000 square kilometres of forested areas across India. The estimation, conducted in a phased manner, was facilitated by classifying the area into four major landscapes of Shivalik-Gangetic plains; Central India and Eastern Ghats; Western Ghats; and Northern India and Brahmaputra Flood Plains. Each of these was studied separately due to differences in the environment, habitat and relative presence of elephants.

This 95-page document is divided into six main chapters: Executive Summary (Chapter 1); Status of Elephants in India (Chapter 2); Western Ghats (Chapter 3); Central India & Eastern Ghats (Chapter 4); Shivalik Hills & Gangetic Plains (Chapter 5); and North Eastern Hills & Brahmaputra Flood Plains (Chapter 6).

    FACTOIDS

  1. Prior to SAIEE 2021-2025, elephant tracking in India followed several methods. Until 1992, averages of figures obtained through direct visual counts were used to capture numbers. The methodology shifted with Project Elephant in 1992. Under this, assessments took place every five years and covered the total counts, water hole count, sample count, transect count as well as dung count. However, the survey methods employed for monitoring differed by sites which made comparisons difficult.

  2. The Synchronised Elephant Census in 2005, 2010 and 2017, further revised the methodology to four main methods: total count, sample block count, line transect dung count, and waterhole count. The estimates generated from these previous methods remained unreliable due to observer biases and methodological inconsistencies, the report notes.

  3. The SAIEE 2021-2025 was undertaken in 20 states. In Phase 1 sites were assessed to obtain signs of carnivores and mega-herbivores, measure ungulate abundance, vegetation, human disturbance and dung count primarily through ground surveys. Phase II incorporated remote sensed data including vegetation cover, distance from protected areas, night light intensity and human footprint. Phase III combined both ground level and remote detected data to estimate elephant abundance.

  4. At present the total elephant population in the Western Ghats is estimated to be around 11,934. Karnataka records the highest elephant population at 6,013 – both within the Ghats landscape and nationally. In the Ghats it was followed by Tamil Nadu and Kerala with around 3,136 and 2,785 elephants respectively. The 2023 estimation conducted in this region by the state forest departments had given a count of 11,276, the report adds.

  5. The elephant population in central India and the eastern Ghats is the smallest in the country. This region comprising of Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, some parts of eastern Maharashtra, southern West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh has around 1,891 elephants – about 1,390 fewer than figures in the previous observations of 2017.

  6. Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar which spread across the Shivalik Hills and Gangetic Plains accounted an elephant population of about 2,062. The survey in this region recorded 1,792 elephants in Uttarakhand. Whereas Uttar Pradesh and Bihar registered comparatively fewer counts at 257 and 13 respectively. The SAIEE 2017 had shown a somewhat similar population (2,085) including a handful of counts in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

  7. The survey recorded roughly 6,559 elephants in the northeastern hills and Brahmaputra flood plains. Previous counts – SAIEE 2017 and 2024 figures from the Assam forest department – had recorded figures around 10,248. Assam, at 4,159, recorded the largest elephant population in the region whereas Manipur had the lowest estimate at just nine.


    Focus and Factoids by Poornima Thampy.

AUTHOR

Qamar Qureshi, Vishnupriya Kolipakam, Ujjwal Kumar, Yadvendradev V. Jhala, Ramesh K. Pandey, Bilal Habib, Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj Satya Prakash Yadav, and Virendra R. Tiwari.

COPYRIGHT

Wildlife Institute of India

PUBLICATION DATE

14 Oct, 2025

TAGS

#environment #elephants #animals

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