London, July 1 (IANS) Five NGOs have come together to raise 20 million pounds for securing 100 elephant corridors in India by 2025 to curb increasing fragmentation of forests as well as human-elephant conflict, it was announced on Wednesday.
The NGOs – Elephant Family, International Fund for Animal Welfare, IUCN Netherlands, World Land Trust and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) – came together under the umbrella of the Asian Elephant Alliance.
According to a statement, the alliance aims to secure a safe passage for India’s elephants, which comprise approximately half of the world’s wild Asian elephant population.
WTI documented 100 elephant corridors in consultation with the forest departments. The NGO’s executive director Vivek Menon said: “The coming together of the global community in the fight for this endangered species is pleasing.”
Each year, India loses nearly 400 people and about 50 elephants to man-animal conflict due to ever shrinking habitat of the animal.
As only 22 percent of elephant habitat has some kind of protection, the majority of elephant population in India is living around human dominated landscapes which have become hotbeds of human elephant conflict.
WTI started its corridor securement project in 2001 and has since then secured three corridors in Karnataka, Kerala and Meghalaya.