Northeast India emerges second largest elephant population
Guwahati The first-ever DNA-based All India Synchronous Elephant Estimation (SAIEE 2021–2025) has revealed that Northeast India is home to the country’s second-largest elephant population, with an estimated 6,559 wild elephants, marking a major advance in India’s wildlife science and monitoring efforts.
Conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) under Project Elephant, the survey adopted cutting-edge genetic mark–recapture techniques, identifying individual elephants through DNA extracted from dung samples collected across 15 sites in the region.
This marks the first time India has employed molecular methods to estimate elephant populations — replacing conventional dung-count surveys — to achieve greater precision in understanding elephant numbers, movements, and distribution.
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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 notes.
According to the findings, 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, these states and territories form the North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Flood Plains, one of Asia’s most critical elephant landscapes.
The region’s elephants are distributed across 14 population blocks, many of which transcend state boundaries. Four major clusters — the North Bank of the Brahmaputra and Northern West Bengal, South Bank–Eastern Areas, South Bank–Western Areas, and smaller adjoining ranges — host the majority of elephants.
In Assam, elephants occupy a remarkably diverse terrain — from the Terai and Dooars belt of the Himalayan foothills to the fertile Brahmaputra floodplains. The state’s five Elephant Reserves — Chirang-Ripu, Sonitpur, Dehing-Patkai, Dhansiri-Lungding, and Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong — form the core habitats, supporting cross-border elephant movements into neighbouring states.
Yet, the report warns that Assam also records among the highest levels of human-elephant conflict in India. Extensive forest clearance in Sonitpur and Golaghat, combined with deforestation for tea cultivation, expanding infrastructure, and poaching, have intensified encounters.
Between 2010 and 2020, the state reported 875 human and 825 elephant deaths linked to conflict. Most incidents occur outside protected areas, where elephants are driven into agricultural zones by shrinking habitats.
The report highlights that Northeast India, bordered by five countries, faces escalating pressures from deforestation, plantation expansion, mining, and infrastructure projects, all of which fragment corridors and isolate elephant populations.
At the national level, India’s wild elephant population has been estimated at 22,446 (range: 18,255–26,645). Karnataka (6,013), Assam (4,159), and Kerala (2,785) host the largest populations.
Despite mounting threats, the findings reaffirm the ecological significance of the Northeast, which remains a vital genetic and geographic bridge linking elephant populations across India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar — and a key to the long-term survival of the Asian elephant