Guwahati: The first-ever DNA-based All India Synchronous Elephant Estimation (SAIEE 2021–2025) has revealed that Northeast India harbours the country’s second-largest elephant population, estimated at 6,559 elephants, marking a major leap in scientific wildlife monitoring.
Conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) under Project Elephant, the census used genetic mark–recapture techniques to identify individual elephants from dung samples collected across 15 sites in the region.
This method, employed for the first time in India, replaces indirect dung counts with genetic analysis, providing a far more accurate picture of elephant numbers and movements.
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“This nationwide estimate uses DNA-based mark–recapture for the first time in India; given the methodological changes, it is not comparable to past figures and may be treated as a new monitoring baseline for further research, monitoring and estimation,” the report states.
Among northeastern states, Assam leads with 4,159 elephants, followed by Meghalaya (677), Arunachal Pradesh (617), North Bengal (676), Nagaland (252), Tripura (153), Mizoram (16), and Manipur (9). Together, they form the North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Flood Plains — one of Asia’s most critical elephant habitats.
The report notes that the region’s elephant population is spread across 14 distinct population blocks, many of which extend across state boundaries. Of these, four major blocks hold the majority of elephants:
Northern West Bengal and the North Bank of the Brahmaputra,
South Bank of the Brahmaputra – Eastern Areas,
South Bank of the Brahmaputra – Western Areas, and
Other Populations are distributed across smaller ranges.
In Assam, elephants inhabit a diverse landscape — from the Terai and Dooars belt of the Himalayan foothills to the Brahmaputra floodplains.
The state’s five Elephant Reserves — Chirang-Ripu, Sonitpur, Dehing-Patkai, Dhansiri-Lungding, and Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong — serve as crucial strongholds, supporting populations that also extend into adjoining northeastern states.
However, the report underscores that Assam experiences some of the highest levels of human-elephant conflict in India.
Habitat fragmentation, especially large-scale forest clearance in Sonitpur and Golaghat districts, has intensified encounters. Major threats include deforestation for tea and agriculture, weed invasion, linear infrastructure, poaching, and retaliatory killings.
Between 2010 and 2020, Assam alone recorded 875 human and 825 elephant deaths linked to conflict, alongside widespread crop loss and property damage.
Most incidents occur outside protected areas, where elephants venture into farmland due to shrinking forest cover. Political unrest and insurgency have further accelerated habitat degradation in regions like Kameng and Sonitpur.
The report also highlights a renewed sampling effort in 2024 to cover previously underrepresented northeastern habitats.
Over 12,000 dung samples were analysed, identifying 1,304 unique elephants through genetic sequencing.
Nationally, the DNA-based survey estimates India’s wild elephant population at 22,446 (range: 18,255–26,645), with Karnataka (6,013), Assam (4,159), and Kerala (2,785) emerging as the top three states.
The findings underscore the ecological importance of the Northeast, which, despite rapid habitat loss, remains a genetic and geographical bridge for elephant populations across India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.
Also Read: IUCN’s 2025 outlook isn’t good news for Kaziranga, Manas: Here’s why