Bhubaneswar, May 21: Odisha government will conduct the elephant census in the state from Wednesday after a gap of seven years.
A mock head count exercise, involving trained staff, is being conducted today prior to the three-day exercise from May 22 to 24.
The census teams involved in the head count will take positions and continue the counting exercise from tomorrow for the next three days till May 24, sources in the wildlife wing of Forest department said.
The All Odisha Elephant Estimation 2024 will be taken up across 43 divisions using direct count method.
A total of 1,136 machans along with barracks, watch towers and other such establishments will be used by the census teams.
The last jumbo census was conducted in the state way back in 2017. At that time, the head count revealed presence of 1,976 elephants in Odisha forests. Earlier, the 2015 census had found 1,954 elephants in the state.