12 August: World Elephant Day

World Elephant Day is observed every year on August 12, aims to spread awareness on the risk of extinction faced by these much-loved wild animals.

There are three species of elephants — African Forest, African Savanna (bush), and Asian. The animals can be differentiated by their ears and trunks. African elephants are larger.
India houses about 60% of all Asian elephants.
The Indian elephant Elephas maximus occurs in the central and southern Western Ghats, North-east India, eastern India and northern India and in some parts of southern peninsular India.
It is included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES).
It occurs in 16 of the 28 states in the country and is showing an increasing trend across its distributional range.
Recently Agasthiyamalai was declared 31st Elephant Reserve in the country after Singphan ER in Nagaland was notified in 2018. It is also the 5^th Elephant Reserve of Kerala.
Project Elephant was launched by the Govt. of India to ensure the protection of the pachyderms and their environment.
According to the latest elephant census conducted in 2017, the population of elephants in India has reached up to about 27,312.
According to the 2017 census, Karnataka had the highest number of elephants (6,049), followed by Assam (5,719) and Kerala (3,054).