Elephant recorded in India’s Namdapha Tiger Reserve after 12 years

An elephant has been camera-trapped in India’s easternmost tiger reserve after 12 years, fuelling conservation hopes.

Officials manning the 1,985 sq. km Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve in the Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh said an adult male elephant was recorded in the Kathan region of Namdapha’s northwestern part.

The park’s Field Director, V.K. Jawal, said elephants are known to forage in the fringe areas of the tiger reserve occasionally, but the presence of one deeper inside the forest was “momentous”.

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A team led by Mr. Jawal and Biri Karba, the Range Forest Officer of Namdapha’s Wildlife Range and Research Wing, captured the male elephant on January 13, 2025. The last such sighting was in 2013.

“This sighting is of great importance, as it offers critical insights into the presence and movement patterns of elephants in the park. It also highlights the crucial need for continued patrols in vulnerable core boundary areas, particularly the Kathan region,” the Field Director said.

According to the Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department, elephants have traditionally migrated between the Namsai area of the State and Myanmar through the Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve. The route the elephants used to take was Boga Pahad-Bulbulia-Firmbase-Embeyong-52nd Mile Nallah-Kodboi-Myanmar.

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The 38th Upper and 38th Lower areas of Embeyong have been under encroachment since 1996. The 52nd Mile area, from where the elephants used to cross the Noa-Dehing River to reach the Kodboi area, is also under unauthorised occupation, the department stated.

As a result of the encroachments, the elephants have remained largely in the northern parts of Namdapha, sometimes venturing into fringe areas, including Khachang and Songking villages under the Miao Circle, often causing human-elephant conflict and economic loss to the villagers, the statement said.

Mr. Jawal called for the communities living around the tiger reserve to work together with the Namdapha authority for wildlife conservation, and the reopening of the elephant corridors.