Context: The Centre has approved setting up Terai Elephant Reserve (TER) at Dudhwa-Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh under Project Elephant.

• The TER is the third new elephant reserve with the other two Lemru in Chhattisgarh and Agasthymalai in Tamil Nadu under Project Elephant.

• The Project Elephant is a centrally sponsored scheme which supports elephant conservation in the country.

Terai Elephant Reserve

• Spread over 3,049 sq. km area, it will be India's 33rd Elephant Reserve

• It will have protected areas, forest areas and corridors for conservation of wild elephants.

• It will be developed in the joint forest areas of Dudhwa and Piliphit tiger reserves including Kishanpur and Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuaries

• It will cover the conservations of four wild species such as: Tiger, Asian elephant, Swamp deer and One-horned rhinoceros

• The reserve through implementing human-elephant conflict mitigation strategies will protect villagers living in the Indo-Nepal border areas of Uttar Pradesh.

• It will also be beneficial for the two tiger reserves in terms of managing grassland and corridor maintenance.

Current status of the Elephant Reserves

• All the 33 elephant reserves put together cover a total area of nearly 80,000 sq. km.

• Tamil Nadu and Assam have the highest number of elephant reserves with five each in both the states, followed by four in Kerala, Three in Odisha and:

• Two each in: Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Nagaland and West Bengal,

• One each in: Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Uttarakhand.

About Indian Elephant (Elephas maximus indicus)

• It is one of four extant recognised subspecies of the Asian elephant and native to mainland Asia.

• Elephant has been recognized as a National Heritage Animal of India.

• India has the largest population of Asian elephants with 30,000 wild and about 3,600 captive ones.

• Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I.

• IUCN Red List: Endangered.

• The Asian elephant is threatened by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation.

Distribution and Habitat

The Indian elephant is native to mainland Asia:

• India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Laos, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

• It is regionally extinct in Pakistan.

• It inhabits grasslands, dry deciduous, moist deciduous, evergreen and semi-evergreen forests.