2700 Captive Elephants Will Get Their Own ‘Aadhaar Cards’ To Protect Them From Animal Cruelty

A couple of months ago, two elephant carcasses were reportedly unearthed from the Gurubeda reserve forest under Joda forest section of Keonjhar district in Odisha. This isn’t an isolated incident in which elephants were killed by poachers for their tusks. Looking at the rising number of atrocities against elephants, the government initiated ‘Project Elephant’.

According to reports published by Times Of India, the authorities are collecting blood and faecal samples of elephants in captivity across the country to give them a unique identity number based on their DNA just like an Aadhaar Card. As of now, there are nearly 2,700 captive elephants.

Elaborating on their unique initiative to safeguard the jumbos, Noyal Thomas, director of Project Elephant said:

“The genetic mapping will ensure that each captive elephant in the country is only kept by an authorised person after getting a nod from the state chief wildlife warden. Thus, it will ensure that all the captive elephants are under the scanner of the state forest department and any kind of wildlife crime like poaching of their tusks or bones don’t take place.”

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Thomas further divulged that genetic mapping the animal will help to track the elephants in case they need any support or medical assistance. It will also enable them to track their population growth and check that no elephant is tortured or manhandled. As of now, Assam has the maximum number of captive elephants (nearly 1,000), followed by Kerala (500) and Tamil Nadu (300).

As per reports, India has the most number of captive elephants, a majority of which are primarily used for tourism purposes. Well, let’s hope this initiative helps to reduce the number of unnatural deaths of elephants in India.

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