World Elephant Day: Hira & Laxmi get 'special food' at National Zoological Park in Delhi

To mark the occasion of World elephant day on August 12, the elephants in New Delhi’s National Zoological Park (NZP) were presented with a “special treat.” The National Zoological Park in the national capital, which is home to two Asian elephants - Laxmi and Hira, shared the image of the treat along with the animals on official social media account with a caption saying, “Elephants in NZP were offered special food today on the occasion of World Elephant Day.” On World Elephant Day, the giant animals were presented with a fruity meal including watermelon, apples, coconuts among others.

Meanwhile, Karnataka’s Bannerghatta Zoo announced “On World Elephant Day BBP is introducing new programme to involve citizens to provide their services to zoo in form of fodder harvesting through donation services at zoo. The harvested fodder will be fed to the elephants by the mahouts.” Wildlife SOS raised awareness against “chronic foot injuries suffered by India's captive elephants.” taking to official Instagram, the organisation informed how several animals are sent to care with “horrible” problems in the foot.

Environment Minister on World Elephant Day

Meanwhile, on World Elephant Day, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav stressed the identification of the regions where human-elephant conflict prevails and then working towards the same. In his speech, Yadav highlighted the relevance of elephant conservation. He said, “Conservation cannot happen through theories, we have to reach them, we have to believe that locals, as well as departments both, are the trustees. We need to identify the areas where human-elephant conflict exists. And one should visit there in person. We have to keep working on our policy to decrease the conflict.”

Earlier, Minister Yadav took to Twitter and wrote, "India has a large population of wild Asian elephants because we revere our wildlife. On #WorldElephantDay2021, will release the population estimation protocol for all-India elephant and tiger population estimation in 2022 by 9:30 am." He also shared the images from the event and announced the release of the protocol for the exercise of converging elephant and tiger population estimation.

IMAGE: @NzpDelhi/Twitter