Number of elephants in PTR decreases

DALTONGANJ: The number of elephants is dwindling in Palamu Tiger Reserve. From 260 last year it has reduced to 208 this year, shocking foresters in the state.
The two divisional forest officers Premjit Anand ( Core) and Anil K Mishra (buffer zone) of this tiger reserve said, " There are 208 elephants in total, comprising 36 in the core area and 172 elephants in the buffer area."
The count of elephants is done from June 1 to 3 nationwide."To avoid counting one elephant twice, track route and distance of spotting elephants are essential safeguards," said sources in the tiger reserve.
When asked as to how there is this shortage of elephants, Anand said, "Only 25 to 30% of the tiger reserve is scanned. The reserve has an area of 1,026 square kilometres. There are water bodies in the interiors of this reserve where the jumbos may go on the day of counting, so they may be left out in the count."
Anand ruled out any possible migration of this reserve's elephant to other place like Lohardagga, Gumla etc. Sources said that fear of extremism forces this huge reserve to be inadequately scanned by personnel.