India hosts nearly 60% of the world's wild Asian elephant population, with the Synchronous All India Population Estimation of Elephants (SAIEE) 2021–25 estimating India's wild elephant population at 22,446 individuals. These elephants are protected across 33 Elephant Reserves spanning 80,777 km² across 14 elephant-range states, representing an expansion of 8,610 km² since 2014. The conservation framework includes 150 identified elephant corridors, with regional distribution showing 52 corridors in East-Central region, 48 in North-East, 32 in Southern, and 18 in Northern regions, including 19 inter-state corridors and 6 transboundary corridors connecting India and Nepal.
Project Elephant, implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), provides financial and technical support to states for habitat protection, captive elephant conservation, and human-elephant conflict mitigation. The 2021–25 census employed India's first DNA-based synchronized elephant census using dung sample analysis for genetic fingerprinting. Monitoring shows 40% of corridors (59) have increased elephant use, 19% (29) show stable use, 19% (29) show declining use, and 15 corridors are in impaired condition.
Railway safety interventions have covered 127 sensitive railway stretches spanning 3,452.4 km, with 77 stretches across 14 States (1,965.2 km) recommended for mitigation measures involving 705 structures including underpasses, overpasses, ramps, level crossings and bridge modifications. These efforts reduced train-hit elephant deaths from 26 in 2013 to 12 in 2024, a decline of over 50%. Technology deployments include AI-enabled Distributed Acoustic Sensing systems, optical-fibre-based intrusion detection, seismic sensors, and thermal cameras for real-time alerts to loco pilots and control rooms.
The Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024 regulate movement of captive elephants, supported by a High-Powered Committee constituted under Supreme Court's March 3, 2023 order. The Gajah Suchana mobile application maintains a national genetic database with DNA profiles, morphological characteristics and ownership details of every registered captive elephant. Compensation provisions include ₹10 lakh for death or permanent incapacitation, ₹2 lakh for grievous injury, treatment costs up to ₹25,000 for minor injuries, and compensation for crop and property losses as per State norms.
The Management Effectiveness Evaluation framework for Elephant Reserves was launched in 2023 and tested in four reserves—Shivalik, Kaziranga–Karbi Anglong, Mayurbhanj and Nilgiri—with plans to expand nationwide using CAMPA funding. Regional Action Plans have been developed for all elephant-bearing regions to coordinate conservation across state boundaries. West Bengal has the highest number of corridors with 26, accounting for over 17% of the national total.