RAS question
According to the SAIEE 2021-25, which landscape holds the largest elephant population in India?
Correct answer: (C) Western Ghats.
According to SAIEE 2021-25, the Western Ghats hold India's largest elephant population, with an estimated 11,934 elephants.
Explanation
SAIEE 2021-25 identifies the Western Ghats as India's largest elephant landscape, estimating 11,934 elephants there out of a national total of 22,446, equal to a 53.17% share. This was not a simple headcount exercise: SAIEE 2021-25 used DNA-based, synchronous all-India estimation through genetic mark-recapture. Across 37 dung-collection sites, 21,056 dung samples were collected, with a processed subset yielding identified individuals for estimation. This matters because the answer rests on a landscape-level estimate, not on a single reserve or state count. Karnataka is still important within the result, because it supports the highest state population at 6,013 elephants, but India's largest elephant landscape is the Western Ghats.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) North-East India is not the largest landscape in the SAIEE figures; the North Eastern Hills and Brahmaputra Flood Plains are estimated at 6,559 elephants, below the Western Ghats' 11,934.
- (B) Central India is not the leading landscape; SAIEE groups Central India with the Eastern Ghats and gives that combined landscape an estimate of 1,891 elephants, far below the Western Ghats.
- (D) The Eastern Ghats do not hold the largest population; they are part of the Central India and Eastern Ghats landscape, whose estimate is 1,891 elephants, not the top figure.
Concept
This tests environment and ecology through species census methods, landscape-level population distribution, and interpretation of official wildlife estimates. It recurs in RAS because elephant conservation links biodiversity, protected-area governance, and human-wildlife conflict policy.