NEW DELHI: With a proposal to amend the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the Union environment ministry has sought response from the elephant range states including Meghalaya to accord legal status to elephant reserves and corridors on the lines of tiger reserves.
If amended, the proposed law will prohibit mining or carrying out industrial activities in the vicinity of the reserves and their boundaries also cannot be changed without approval from the National Board of Wildlife, according to official sources.
The central government will also take measures to mitigate human-animal conflict in order to prepare a comprehensive national elephant action plan, the sources said.
Under the Wildlife Protection Act, state forest departments have to prepare a tiger reserve management plan with an adequate number of forest staff and strategies to safeguard the tigers.
The existing law already gives legal status to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, the regulatory body for around 50 tiger reserves in India, and with the proposed amendment, the ministry proposes to have a similar legal framework for 30 elephant reserves across 15 states and statutory status for Project Elephant.
India is home to about 30,000 elephants or 60 per cent of the global Asian elephant population.
The population is dwindling because of poaching, reduction of habitat besides many other factors.
