Maharashtra’s wild elephant population has been estimated at 63, in which, 26 individuals are residing in Western Ghats and 37 in the Gadchiroli district of Vidarbha, revealed the country’s first-ever DNA-based Synchronous All-India Elephant Estimation (SAIEE) 2025 conducted by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) recently. The SAIEE-2025 puts India’s elephant population between 18,255 and 26,645, with an average of 22,446. Maharashtra has forested areas equivalent to 20.1 per cent (61,952 sq km) of its total geographical area, and is witnessing a renewed presence of elephants in the latest study.

 

As per the study, historically, stray herds have been documented in different districts, and the range of elephants in the Western ghats is extending northward into Maharashtra. Since the 1950s, intermittent movements have been observed, with elephants migrating from neighbouring States such as Karnataka, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Since 2002, there has been a noteworthy expansion of elephant range in the northern Western Ghats. In 2013, Kolhapur and Sindhudurg districts observed 11 elephants, and in 2021, a herd of 22 elephants migrated from Odisha, traversing Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh before entering Gadchiroli Forest Division in Maharashtra. Despite Gadchiroli lacking a history of wild elephants, the contiguous forests across Indravati National Park in Chhattisgarh and Kolamarka Reserve in Maharashtra provided a conducive landscape.

 

Maharashtra comes under the Central India landscape which supports the smallest wild elephant population in India and harbours some of the country’s most fragmented wildlife habitats. According to the study, the elephant population of Chhattisgarh State in Central India landscape has become the source population, and played a significant role in expanding the distribution of elephants within the dry and moist deciduous landscape of eastern Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha region of Maharashtra including areas of Gadchiroli. Elephant occupancy has been expanded towards several territorial areas of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, connecting several Elephant Reserves, Tiger Reserves and Protected Areas previously unoccupied. Despite presence of wild elephants in Maharashtra, the study also warned that fragmented population may cause the decrease the number of individuals in near future. Man-elephant conflict is also a major issue in the State as many incidents of such conflicts took place in past which claimed human life as well as elephants. Previously, the Maharashtra forest department proposed the Navegaon Elephant Reserve spanning parts of Gondia and Gadchiroli districts to protect migrating herds of wild elephants moving from Chhattisgarh. The initial 4,133 sq km plan was revised down to 1,456 sq km, covering parts of the Gondia territorial division and Gadchiroli which was later put in cold storage.