Vol3, Issue3, Special Issue - Journal of Wildlife Science (JWLS)

Volume 3, Issue 3, Special Issue - September 2026

Download Complete Volume 3 Issue 3

Published on 12^th August 2026

DOI- https://doi.org/10.63033/JWLS.AHCR1879

Conserving the Asian Elephant: Ecological, behavioural, and cultural imperatives

Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel, Honnavalli N. Kumara, M. Ananda Kumar

Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are ecologically, culturally, historically, and scientifically important across Asia, where they are revered in religious traditions, have long served important cultural roles, and continue to be a focus of scientific research and public interest. In the past five decades, Asian elephants have faced growing challenges due to rapid land-use...

Three Decades of Project Elephant: Conservation Efforts for Sustaining Asian Elephants in India

Ramesh Kumar Pandey, Satya Prakash Yadav, Gobind Sagar Bhardwaj, Dheeraj Mittal, Aju Mathew George, Gaurav Sirola, Anukul Nath, Parag Nigam, Bilal Habib

The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), a keystone species, plays a crucial role in maintaining ecological balance. It is distributed in Southeast Asia, with most of its population residing in India. Habitat degradation and fragmentation due to unplanned land-use changes, especially...

Gaja–sastra: India’s forgotten Elephant Science

Ramesh Kumar Pandey

This article revisits Gaja-sastra, the forgotten Indian science of elephants, and traces the evolution of elephantology in India from the 3rd century BC onwards. Drawing on classical texts such as Gajasastra, Hastyayurveda, Matangalila, Manasollasa and Hastividyarnava, it shows how ancient Indian scholars developed systematic knowledge of elephant behaviour, medicine, training, cognition, and welfare through...

Truncated Life: Patterns and Causes of Elephant Mortality in the state of Chhattisgarh, India

Ramesh Kumar Pandey, Athira N Ganesan, Kalpana Roy, Ananya Dutta, Dheeraj Mittal, Parag Nigam, Anukul Nath, Bilal Habib

Human-elephant conflict (HEC) in Chhattisgarh, India, has intensified over the past two decades, threatening both elephant populations and rural livelihoods. This study analysed 218 elephant mortality incidents recorded between 2000 and 2023...

Navigating the coffee fields: elephants’ use of habitat mosaics and the impacts of barriers on their spatial use of villages in a fragmented landscape of South India

Deepak Bhat Dundi, Aditya Ghoshal, Nisar Ahamad, Nandini N C, Ganesh Raghunathan, M. Ananda Kumar

Understanding the spatial ecology of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in fragmented landscapes is crucial for their management and for minimising human-elephant conflict. We studied elephants’ use of habitat mosaics (forest fragments, monoculture plantations of eucalyptus and acacia, coffee plantations, agriculture, river backwaters, and...

Mortality investigations in wild Asiatic elephants (Elephas maximus) due to infected Kodo millet consumption in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh- A case study

Vijay Kumar N. Ambade, Subharanjan Sen, Lakshman Krishnamoorthy, Ramesh Kumar Pandey, Amit Kumar Dubey, Anupam Sahay, Prakash Kumar Varma, Ritesh Sarothiya, Shoba Jawre, Nidhi Rajput, Aniruddha Majumdar, Tejas Karmarkar, Harikishan Sudini, Karikalan Mathesh, Swati Shrivastav, Nitin Gupta, Parag Nigam

In October 2024, a significant mortality event involving ten wild Asiatic elephants (Elephas maximus) occurred in the Bandhavgarh Tiger...

Millet, Mycotoxins, and Megafauna: The Bandhavgarh Elephant Tragedy

Anukul Nath, Ramesh Kumar Pandey, Parag Nigam, Bilal Habib

The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) has experienced severe population decline across its range due to poaching, habitat loss, fragmentation, and escalating human–elephant conflict (HEC). In Central India, HEC has intensified over the past two decades as elephants expand westward into...

Journal of Wildlife Science (JWLS)