The population of Asian elephants in Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala, India was studied during 1981-1983. The sanctuary with an area of about 270 sq. km has both natural forests and plantations. A total count indicated about 114 elephants with an ecological density of about 0.5 animal/sq. km. The biomass was about 905 kg/sq. km. The herd size frequency showed a poly modal distribution. The herd size of eleven was more frequent. The basic family unit in the population was around five. There was no significant seasonal or monthly differences in herd size.…

Today we find that many animal species throughout the world are threatened with extinction or are becoming increasingly endangered. The situation is even more severe in the developing countries, where the limited resources available for conservation and growing population with their demand for new land make conservation a truly challenging task. The primary reason for this deplorable situation has been man. Humans have reduced most natural habitats into islands surrounded by land development for human use.

This paper discusses human-elephant conflict (HEC) in Koundinya Wildlife Sactuary (KWS), one of the two sites in Andhra Pradesh colonized by elephants during the 1980s after dispersing from sites in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states. The nature and extent of the past and present HEC, causes for the conflict, mitigation measures adopted, and their effectiveness are discussed based on a one year study (January-December 2005).

The ranging behaviour of elephant has been studied in different parts of Africa and Asia. The African studies were started by Douglas-Hamilton 1973, 1975, Leuthold and Sale 1973, Leuthold 1977b, Merz 1986a, Dunham 1986, Hall-Martin 1987, Viljoen 1989, and mainly described the size of the home range in relation to environmental factors, vegetation, shape and spatial distribution. The fidelity to the home range was studied by Wyatt and Eltringham (1974), Leuthold (1977b), and Viljoen (1989).

The home range of elephants has been extensively studied in Africa, covering habitats ranging from deserts (Viljoen 1989) to tropical forests (Merz 1986). In Asia, home range has been studied in the Malaysian rain forest (Olivier 1978) and deciduous forests in south India (Sukumar 1985 and present study). Home range sizes very depending on the habitat types. In Africa, home range sizes of 14 of 52 sq.km were reported for Manyara (Douglas-Hamilton 1972 as cited by Vijoen 1989) and 1763 to 2944 sq.

The Asian Elephant Elephas maximus Linn. occurs across south and south-east Asia, from peninsular India and Sri Lanka to Sumatra and Borneo (Corbet and Hill 1992; Choudhury 1999). It occurs in the plains as well as hills, occasionally moving to higher areas. The highest mountain range within and near its distribution range is the Himalaya. How far up the species has ascended has been a matter of great interest and curiosity.