Campaign to Protect the Asian Elephant

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The Asian elephant, once widely distributed throughout many areas of India, is now listed an endangered species by the Indian Government and included on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The factors leading to steep population declines in all five major elephant habitats include: rapid human population growth that has resulted in shrinking habitat; major reductions in elephant “exclusive zones” and elephant “buffer zones;” and increased human-elephant conflicts, including poaching and an extraordinary increase in railway accidents, resulting from an Indian government decision to increase the range, size, and speed of railways throughout the elephants’ habitat.

Unlike elephant populations threatened by large scale poaching, the threats plaguing Asian elephant populations in India can be greatly reduced through three strategies: organizing community-led on the ground interventions; eliminating the Indian Railway exemption from the Environmental Impact Assessment process; and developing broad based public support for elephant protection.  
To reverse the Asian elephant population decline, Earth Day Network India (EDN-India) proposes a three year campaign to:

• Initiate public interest litigation against the Indian government to eliminate the  EIA exemption for railway activities;
• Launch a pan-India campaign build and mobilize a broader national citizen’s movement to support the elimination of the EIA exemption and to protect the Asian Elephants, Rhinos and Tigers.
• Engage local community and other stakeholders in one of India’s most important elephant habitats in a one year pilot program to develop and implement a comprehensive protection plan, including a simple but effective Early Warning System to reduce elephant deaths to zero from railway accidents;
• Offer medical assistance to participants and their extended families as well as environmental education and sex trafficking education in all participating communities; and
• Develop  and implement an environmental stewardship ethic among local community stakeholders, including community leaders and small and local government leaders.

India is home to between 50 and 60 per cent of all of Asia's wild elephants.  Asian Elephants are listed as an endangered species on the World Conservation Union’s Red List, Schedule 1. The protection of Asian Elephants in India is thus of paramount importance.