Uttarakhand Forest Department to Radio-Collar Elephants Ahead of 2027 Haridwar Kumbh

Exam-focused facts from the 29 July 2026 current affairs briefing.

Key facts

The Uttarakhand Forest Department plans to fit radio collars on herd-leading elephants to track their movements and reduce human-elephant encounters during the 2027 Kumbh Mela in Haridwar.
The initiative is being developed in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which has already provided four collars.
Real-time location alerts from the collars will enable rapid-response teams to guide elephants back to forests and identify conflict hotspots.
Uttarakhand's wild elephant population increased from 1,839 in 2017 to 2,026 in 2020, according to the state Forest Department census.
A proposal seeking permission to deploy the collars has been sent to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.