UPSC Exam Preparation: Topic of the Day – Gaj Yatra
‘Gaj Yatra’ a nationwide mega- campaign to protect elephants, was launched on the occasion of World Elephant Day. The campaign is planned to protect India’s National Heritage animal and would cover 12 elephant range states. The 12 Elephant Range States are Uttarakhand, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The 18 months long campaign will be led by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Aim of the Gaj Yatra campaign:
The campaign aims to create awareness about the shrinking space for India’s wild elephants and securing the elephant corridors to encourage free movement in their habitat.
World Elephant Day:
- World Elephant Day is an annual global event celebrated across the world on the 12th of August, dedicated to the preservation and protection of elephants.
- The goal of World Elephant Day is to create awareness about the plight of elephants and to share knowledge and positive solutions for the better care and management of captive and wild elephants.
- Elephants are an important part of the ecosystem as they fulfill a vital role in sustaining the forests.
- African elephants are listed as “vulnerable” and Asian elephants as “endangered” in the IUCN Red List of threatened species. As per the available population estimates, there are about 400,000 African elephants and 40,000 Asian elephants.
- World Elephant Day is celebrated to focus the attention of various stakeholders in supporting various conservation policies to help protect elephants, including improving enforcement policies to prevent illegal poaching and trade in ivory, conserving elephant habitats, providing better treatment for captive elephants and reintroducing captive elephants into sanctuaries.
Read more ‘Topic of the Day’ and stay ahead of your competition. Also read about Haathi Mere Saathi campaign.
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