Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat was informed by forest officials that an elephants' census was carried out between June 6 and June 8 and the number of elephants has risen to 2,026 from 1,839 in 2017, according to Chief Minister's Office (CMO).
Rawat chaired 15th meeting of Uttarakhand State Wildlife Advisory Board on Monday.
"In the year 2012, there were 1,559 elephants while in 2017 there were 1,839 elephants. Thus the number of elephants has increased by 10.17 per cent since the year 2017," officials informed Chief Minister Rawat.
Similarly, the aquatic fauna was counted from February 22 to February 24 and it was found that there are 451 crocodiles, 77 gharials and 194 otters in the state.
Officials in the meeting informed Chief Minister Rawat that, the snow-leopard population will also be assessed in the state from the year 2020 to 2022, 23 per cent of the state has snow-leopard in its geographical area.
The Chief Minister said that NH 72-A is of utmost importance for Uttarakhand, giving top priority to it, there should be no delay in the formalities required for the approvals in the work projects related to it.
He further said that the work of rhinoceros' reintroduction in Corbett Reserve and Rajaji Tiger Reserve should be completed in a time-bound manner.
( With inputs from ANI )