is increasingly being sliced up<\/a> by highways and railways or clawed up by mines.<\/p>\nThe Supreme Court has directed states to prevent the blockage of elephant corridors \u2013 routes used by herds to move between rapidly shrinking habitats \u2013 and ordered a survey to identify obstructions along those routes.<\/p>\n
That must include steps to end the use of any \u201ccoercive measure to divert the natural movement of the elephants\u201d, it read.<\/p>\n
A ban on \u201chulla parties\u201d \u2013 groups deployed to drive elephants away using \u201cfireballs\u201d and burning stakes \u2013 is required, it said.<\/p>\n
The court ruling, issued on Aug 17, said ministry guidelines were already in place to ensure \u201cunobstructed\u201d elephant corridors, but those routes have often been impeded.<\/p>\n
Wildlife conservationist Prerna Singh Bindra, who led the pro bono public interest case, told AFP her petition had challenged state governments \u201csupporting horrifically cruel practices\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt becomes a mob situation with thousands of people chasing the elephants using burning spears,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat does nothing to resolve conflict; science shows it only exacerbates the conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are fewer than 50,000 Asian elephants in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund \u2013 most in India, with others in Sri Lanka and South-east Asia.<\/p>\n
Elephants are protected by law, are named as India\u2019s \u201cnational heritage animal\u201d, and many followers of the elephant-headed Hindu deity Ganesh see the animals as sacred.<\/p>\n
But they face mounting pressure from habitat loss, fragmentation, and increasing human-elephant conflict.<\/p>\n
Bindra, a former member of India\u2019s top governing body for wildlife conservation and policy, the National Board for Wildlife, said the court\u2019s order was needed to ensure the survival of elephants in one of the most densely populated areas in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know where elephant corridors and habitats are \u2013 and they are being destroyed and fragmented at an unprecedented pace,\u201d Bindra said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe will to protect and preserve is markedly absent. We hope with this Supreme Court order, this survey must lead to action.\u201d<\/p>\n
India\u2019s government elephant survey, released in October 2025, estimated 22,446 wild elephants nationwide \u2013 but also warned the herds were found in a \u201cmere fraction\u201d of their historical range, occupying only 3.5 per cent of the area they once roamed.<\/p>\n
In a separate order, the top court on Aug 18 ordered tighter welfare safeguards for India\u2019s more than 2,600 captive elephants, including ensuring medical records for each animal and regular health checks.<\/p>\n
Captive elephants, once used commonly for logging, are now used for tourism, entertainment, and religious ceremonies.<\/p>\n
Animal rights campaign group PETA India said it welcomed measures to ease their suffering but maintained that \u201cno elephant belongs in captivity\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether captured from the wild or bred for a lifetime of confinement, these intelligent, social animals are denied their forest homes, separated from their mothers, stripped of autonomy, enslaved, and controlled through intimidation and weapons,\u201d PETA India director Poorva Joshipura told AFP. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW DELHI – India\u2019s top court has ordered tough new steps to protect wild elephant herds as habitat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-863471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}