Elephants in Singapore

‘Across India, elephants are moving into areas where they have never set foot before,’ remarks Avinash Krishnan, A Rocha India’s Conservation Officer. Asia is the world’s most densely populated continent, so as towns and villages multiply, and former habitats become degraded, elephants are moving out in search of food, resulting in greater conflict with people. At the end of June, Avinash was in Singapore to present at the Society for Conservation Biology’s ‘Conservation Asia’ conference, sharing his expertise on behaviour changes in Asian Elephants Elephas maximus.

A Rocha India is collaborating closely with the Karnataka Forest Department to assess the status of other mammals in Bannerghatta National Park using camera trap technology. After months of preparation, they will soon begin setting up 65 cameras to get photographic evidence of rarely seen wildlife such as Indian Crested Porcupine Hystrix indica and Rusty-spotted Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus. However, their elephant conservation work continues and in June, Rev’d Prem Mitra was a panelist at a ‘Friends of Elephants’ event, together with speakers from the Hindu and Islam faiths, considering ways to highlight the plight of elephants.

Elephants on farmland. (Avinash Krishnan)