An overview of Asian Elephants in the Western Ghats, southern India: implications for the conservation of Western Ghats ecology

The Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot and source of major rivers in peninsular India, supports around 10,000 Asian elephants across six populations, with some showing increasing trends. This region, home to over 50% of the world's elephant population, faces significant threats from habitat fragmentation, poaching for ivory, and escalating human-elephant conflicts. The study highlights that conserving elephants in this landscape is crucial not only for biodiversity but also for ecological functions like climate stability and erosion control, which benefit millions of people. Effective conservation strategies must focus on consolidating habitats, preserving corridors to mitigate fragmentation, reducing human-elephant conflicts through integrated land-use planning, and protecting tusked males from poaching to ensure a genetically viable population.

Baskaran, N. (2013). An overview of Asian Elephants in the Western Ghats, southern India: implications for the conservation of Western Ghats ecology. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 5(14), 4854–4870. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.o3634.4854-70