World Elephant Day at Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, New Delhi - August 2021

World Elephant Day dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world’s elephants aims to create awareness on elephant conservation, and to share knowledge and positive solutions for the better protection and management of wild and captive elephants.

This year, the World Elephant day was celebrated by Project Elephant Division and Elephant Cell of WII at Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, New Delhi. The programme involved releasing the booklet on “All India Elephant, Tiger and Leopard Estimation” and the fourth edition of the quarterly newsletter of Project Elephant Division and Elephant Cell. A video on measures for encouraging human – elephant co-existence through HEC mitigative approaches was also screened. The announcements of prize winners of the painting competition and essay competition organized on occasion of Baharat ki Aazadi Mahotsav were announced in the presence of the august gathering. The event was oragnised with the esteemed presence of Shri Bhupender Yadav, Hon’ble Minister EF&CC, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Hon’ble MoS, EF&CC, Shri Subhash Chandra, DGF&SS, MoEF&CC; Dr. S. P. Yadav, ADG (NTCA), Shri Ramesh Kumar Pandey, IGF & Director Project Elephant, MoEF&CC and other senior officers of MoEF&CC. The State Forest Departments, WII and other stake holder organizations joined the celebrations on the virtual mode. Shri Bhupendra Yadav, Hon’ble Minister, EF&CC emphasized public participation and local knowledge are necessary tools for elephant conservation and addressing man-animal conflicts. There is a need to identify areas where man-animal conflicts exist and visit local areas while framing a policy to address these issues. He also stressed that a bottom up approach towards conservation, involving local communities is the way forward towards wildlife conservation. Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Hon’ble Minister of State, EF&CC highlighted that elephant conservation is intricately linked to ecosystem conservation. He also stressed that saving elephants was like saving forests, and saving forests led to saving the entire ecosystem.