This is the first of its kind initiative in the country
Tamil Nadu’s Forest Department has introduced an elephant death audit framework to put in place a more detailed and transparent process for recording and monitoring elephant deaths in the State.
It prescribes a systematic standard protocol for conducting post-mortem to determine the reasons for death of an elephant.
It will help to study the circumstances of preventable and unnatural deaths and formulate measures to prevent them.
It will be applicable all over Tamil Nadu for the death of elephants in the wild.
It has to be uniformly followed in all wildlife areas and territorial divisions.
India is home to over two-thirds of the World’s Asian elephant population.
Incredibly, they live alongside people across much of India, with only about 20 per cent of their range inside protected areas.
Yet their population is stable or even increasing in some regions.
Elephants are among the most long-lived mammals, with a life expectancy of around 50 years in the wild, and a generation length of 22 years.