Experts demand early completion of studies on conservation of jumbos

The state forest department appointed committee had also completed the interim report on the issue. Similarly, another Supreme Court-appointed committee is also conducting back to back to visits at the elephant corridors in Nilgiris. “The landscape details of the elephant habitat have been profiled and we are fine-tuning on the rescue operation protocols for elephants. We are also examining the recent cases of leopard rescues carried out by our foresters, so that an improvised more scientific approach can be adopted,” said additional principal chief conservator of forests Shekhar Nirah, who leads the elephant monitoring committee.

Meanwhile, a group of wildlife biologists and activists have urged for the speedy completion of the ongoing studies related to the elephant conservation as there is an alarming death of elephants and human-animal conflicts reported from elephant parks in Kerala and Tamil Nadu wildlife corridors.

“A lot of habitat destruction for elephants has taken place in Nilgiri biosphere. The Supreme Court and the state governments are keenly monitoring the cruelty that the jumbos are paying for the haphazard development activities in forest areas,” opined conservation scientist A Kumaraguru.

Further renowned Asiatic expert Ajay Desai who was appointed by the Supreme Court in its monitoring committee and also appointed as a member by TN forest department for elephant monitoring has died on Friday.

This is another setback for the committees working on the elephant conservation, said Kumaraguru who has worked with Ajay Desai in radio-collaring and DNA gene poll studies related to Asiatic elephants.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today condoled the death of field biologist and wildlife conservation expert Ajay Adrushyappa Desai who passed away in Belagavi on Thursday night. In his message, Palaniswami said Ajay’s death was a great loss and he was saddened by the expert’s demise. DMK President MK Stalin also condoled the death. In a tweet, he said ‘’deeply saddened by the passing of ‘Elephant Man’ Ajay Desai. India has lost one of its foremost wildlife conservationists today and the elephants of the world have lost their greatest champion. ‘’My sincere condolences to his family & friends’’, he said. Desai was a member Wildlife Institute of India and Asian elephant consultant. He was a World Wild Fund (WWF) Consultant and a member of the International Union for Conservation of Natural Resources (IUCN). Desai was group co-chairman of Asiatic elephants specialist group. He had also served as a member of the Karnataka State Wildlife Board.