Karnataka records highest wild elephant population with 6,013
southern states home to over 53% of total
Bengaluru: Karnataka has emerged as the state with the highest wild elephant population in India, recording 6,013 elephants, according to the country’s first-ever DNA-based population estimation.
The survey, titled “Status of Elephants in India: DNA-based Synchronous All-India Population Estimation of Elephants”, revealed that southern states account for 53.16% of the country’s total elephant population, with Karnataka leading the list, followed by Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
According to the study, cited by Deccan Herald on Wednesday, Tamil Nadu reported 3,136 and Kerala 2,785, bringing the total for the Western Ghats landscape to 11,934 elephants.
The Environment Ministry, Project Elephant, and the Wildlife Institute of India released the long-awaited report nearly four years after the survey began in 2021. The delay was due to the complex genetic analysis and data validation involved in the exercise.
Officials clarified that the new figures are not directly comparable with the 2017 census, which estimated 27,312 elephants across India, as the methodology has changed significantly. This is the first time DNA analysis of dung samples has been used to estimate elephant numbers.
The new count used a three-phase process combining ground surveys, satellite-based mapping and genetic analysis.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
