Elephant census in south on May 15, 16

BANGALORE: The much anticipated elephant census in the southern states will be held with a delay of 10 days on May 15 and 16. The two-day census was earlier scheduled to be held on May 5 and 6. But due to the disagreement over dates with wildlife wardens of other states, it was put off by 10 days, informed chief wildlife warden BK Singh.

The census is being carried out under �Project Elephant wherein forest officials of Karnataka with their counterparts in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh will estimate the number of elephants.

Some of the methods used in the census to count the pachyderms in the state will be dung count (also referred to as indirect estimation), block count and through direct sighting.

The elephant population in the state has been estimated to be around 6,000.