Jump in jumbo count

“The number of elephants in North Bengal can go well past 500 as per the preliminary report we have. Last estimation of the number of elephants in the area in 2008 was between 350 to 400,” said S B Mondal,state’s Chief Wildlife Warden.

“We are hopeful of promising results as in the last one year we have seen a number of young elephants,which suggests that the elephants are breeding very well,” said Sheelwant Patel,Chief Conservator of Forest (North Bengal).

According to RP Saini,Director of Buxa Tiger Reserve,a preliminary estimate of the number of elephants at the 761 sq km reserve also points at an increase in the population.

“As per preliminary estimate the number of elephants in Buxa Tiger Reserve shows that the number would be at least 210. The earlier estimate of the number of elephants in the reserve was around 140,” said Saini.

Patel said that on the final day of the census today,forest officials have monitored the elephants from nearly 80 watch towers.

“The officials would take into account the texture of the population,the number of tuskers,makhna elephants,the male-female ratio,the ratio of adult,sub-adult and juvenile elephants — which gives vital information about the health of the population,” he added.

According to forest department officials,the final data will be prepared in about a month since the elephants are constantly on the move and the data collected has to be processed and double counting errors have to be removed. The Census was done in the forest area of North Bengal of nearly 2,000 sq km.

Meanwhile,the state forest department has proposed construction of underpasses,over-bridges and introduction of other measure to curtail incidents of elephants being run over by trains in the Doars region of North Bengal.

A fund of Rs 2.42 crore has already been sanctioned by the Centre for this purpose and the total estimate is assessed to be Rs 7.25 crore.