biology

Project Elephant

Project Elephant is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Project Elephant rather than just read about it. In short: Project Elephant is a wildlife conservation movement initiated in India to protect the endangered Indian elephant. The project was initiated in 1992 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government of India to provide financial and technical support to the states for wildlife management of free-ranging elephant populations.

Key takeaways

Project Elephant belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Project Elephant to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Project Elephant from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Project Elephant is a wildlife conservation movement initiated in India to protect the endangered Indian elephant. The project was initiated in 1992 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government of India to provide financial and technical support to the states for wildlife management of free-ranging elephant populations. The project aims to ensure the long-term survival and viability of elephant populations in their natural habitats by protecting the animals, their habitats and migration corridors. The project also facilitates research of ecology and management of elephants, creating awareness of conservation among local people, and providing veterinary care for captive elephants.

History and objectives Project Elephant was initiated in 1992 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government of India. The project was initiated to protect the Indian elephant and its habitats and to establish dedicated elephant reserves for sustaining elephant populations. The project was established to provide financial and technical support to the states with free ranging elephant population for the protection of the animals, their habitats and migration corridors. It was also intended to address human-animal conflict and promote welfare of captive elephants. The project has been implemented in 22 States and union territories of India. The project also undertakes activities aimed at constructing infrastructure and other facilities for conservation like veterinary care, field force training, necessary capture and translocation of wild elephants. With regards to captive elephants, the project aims to ensure the well being of such elephants including providing veterinary care, training of mahouts and supervisory staff.

Another important aim of the scheme is to prevent poaching of wild elephants. Project Elephant has been formally implementing MIKE (Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants) programme of CITES since January 2004. It facilitates taking suitable measures like deployment of patrolling squads, intelligence gathering, maintaining data on illegal hunting and to determine factors responsible for poaching and to take appropriate measures to mitigate the same. Project Elephant also facilitates various research activities through the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) such as developing crop varieties not favored by elephants, developing elephant-proof storage bins for food grains and developing elephant repellents in order to reduce human-animal conflicts. It has also engaged in research regarding disease-management in captive elephants and efficacy of immuno-contraceptives on domesticated elephants with Assam Agricultural University, monitoring and tracking of elephants with Wildlife Institute of India. Project Elephant also promotes eco-tourism for generating extra revenue for the welfare of captive breeding programmes for elephants, organizes courses for veterinarians and mahouts dealing with domesticated elephants and in promoting awareness on elephant conservation across communities.

Elephant population

The first exclusive exercise for enumeration of wild elephants in the elephant reserves was conducted in 2005. This exercise also sought to experiment with two sampling methods, viz. Block sampling and Line transect-Dung Count. As per the elephant population survey conducted in 2017, the population of wild elephants in the country has increased to 29,964 as compared to 27,669-27,719 in 2007. The estimated wild population in India accounted for nearly three-fourths of the extant population. However, a census conducted on a new DNA-based method estimated the population to have declined to 22,446 individuals in 2025. There are about 138 identified elephant corridors in India with the majority of the elephant population in India is restricted to four general areas.

Elephant reserves As of 2023, 33 Elephant Reserves (ERs) extending nearly 80,778 square kilometres (31,189 sq mi) across 14 states have been formally notified.

See also List of Indian states by elephant population Project Tiger Project Dolphin Project Cheetah Mela shikar Khedda

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Project Elephant

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Project Elephant claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Project Elephant before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Project Elephant ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Project Elephant

In research: Project Elephant appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Project Elephant in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Project Elephant is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Conservation-reliant species, Conservation projects, Elephant conservation, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Project Elephant outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Project Elephant in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Project Elephant means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Project Elephant out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Project Elephant in simple terms?

Why does Project Elephant matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Project Elephant?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Project Elephant.