DNA profiling of 270 captive elephants completed: Govt

Source: The post is based on the article “DNA profiling of 270 captive elephants completed: Govt” published in Indian Express on 27th March 2023.

What is the News?

The DNA profiling of 270 of the 2,675 captive elephants in the country has been completed.

Note: India is home to 20% of the global captive Asian elephant population.

What is DNA profiling?

DNA profiling is a method to differentiate between individuals of the same species using samples of their Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

DNA profiling of elephants was started in August 2022 for Gaj Soochna App. This will act as the ‘Adhaar card of captive elephants’.

– Note: Gaj Soochna is a mobile application developed to record the details of captive elephants across India. The centralized database will include physical and genetic information of every captive elephant individual of the country.

The DNA profiling process is being carried out in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India.

What are the benefits of DNA Profiling of elephants?

Firstly, forest officers can identify each elephant and track it and therefore its transfer, which often happens in the case of captive elephants, can be recorded.

Secondly, more focus can be put on elephant care – with unique information about elephants.

Note: Unlike Project Tiger, Project Elephant looks at the welfare and health of captive elephants as well.

What is Project Elephant?

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About Elephant Population in India

India has the largest and the most stable population of Asian elephants, where more than 60% of wild Asian elephants are in India.

The population of 29,964 elephants as recorded in the last elephant census conducted in 2017 speaks volumes of the passion for wildlife conservation ingrained in Indian culture.

As per the Elephant Census (2017), Karnataka has the highest number of elephants (6,049), followed by Assam (5,719) and Kerala (3,054).