Convention of Asian Elephant Specialist Group Members gets underway in Guwahati from Nov 10

The three-day convention will be attended by representatives of 11 Asian elephant range countries as well as presenters and observers from ‘non-elephant’ countries like the United Kingdom and United States of America.

Assam forest minister Pramila Rani Brahma will inaugurate the convention on Nov 10 in presence RK Srivastava, Inspector General and Director - Project Elephant, BS Bonal, Additional Director General (Wildlife), Government of India, Bikash Brahma, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam, Dr Simon Stuart, Advisor and former Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, Vivek Menon, Chair of the AsESG and Executive Director and CEO, Wildlife Trust of India.

It is significant that India is hosting this AsESG convention to be held in nearly 14 years.

The country is, after all, home to 60 percent of the world’s Asian elephant population – an estimated 29,000 to 30,000 wild elephants (including over 5500 in the host state of Assam) and another 3400 to 3600 captive elephants.

Despite being enshrined as figures of reverence in India’s cultural heritage, recognised indeed as the National Heritage Animal, and afforded the strictest level of protection under the country’s laws, India’s elephants are a besieged lot, their forests shrinking and being fragmented due to the resource requirements of a burgeoning human population.

“This gathering of over 75 AsESG experts, will doubtless provide insights into and help formulate solutions to the complex issues that confront Asian elephants today, and which affect these magnificent creatures across all Asian range countries”, AsESG Chair Vivek Menon said.

Status reports on Asian elephants in the wild and in captivity, as well as discussions on framing Range Wide Action Plans for Asian elephants will likely take primacy on the convention’s agenda.

The technical sessions will include presentations from each of the Asian elephant range countries present, and focussed discussions on, among other subjects, population estimations and demographics, mitigation of human elephant conflict, captive elephant management, and health and emerging diseases.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)