A three-day National Elephant Census will begin on May 22 in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, simultaneously.
The synchronised census, taken up once in five years, will be conducted throughout the country, following a directive issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Unlike the Elephant Reserve Census, where enumeration is restricted to counting of pachyderms in reserve forests, the synchronised census will be conducted in forest, non-forest, reserve and non-reserve forest areas (landscape-wise), said Ajay Mishra, Chief Conservator of Forests, Project Elephant, Karnataka.