Population, Habitat and Conservation Problems of Asian Elephant

Human association with the Asian elephant began thousands of years ago. The Asian elephants are distributed over the continental main land and also in certain Islands of south and south-east Asia. Habitat loss and the pressures of the human population have already reduced the Asian elephants to a small fraction of its past area. Now they are only in 13 countries in fragmented and isolated population. The total population of Asian elephant in the wild is estimated to be between 34,000 and 54,000. In Bangladesh the number of Asian elephant is not more than 400; among them 90 to 94 individuals are living in Chittagong Forest Division. Elephant habitat of Chittagong Forest Division supports at least 177 species of flora and 173 species of fauna. The main cause of man elephant conflict is crop raiding which was only 1.61% of total crop cultivated in the studied elephant habitat. Conservation of a flagship species is very effective in modern management practice. The study aims to emphasize the conservation needs and community participation for saving elephants; and should be especially useful to professionals in conservation field, wildlife ecologist and policy makers.

Tapas Ranjan Chakraborty, M Sc in Zoology from Jahangirnagar University. Working in the field of biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation for the last 12 years. Director at Sustainable Development Resource Center, Dhaka