The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has reportedly asked the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to resubmit its annual progress report on the captive elephant data project. This is because, as it is learnt, the report featured a copy-pasted photograph of an African elephant on the cover, instead of an Asian one. Other issues with the report involved inconsistencies in the data.

The Ministry’s Project Elephant Division sent a letter to WII on April 25, expressing dissatisfaction with the report. In the letter, Director Virendra Tiwari and Assistant Inspector General of Forests Sunil Bhardwaj stated that the report submitted by WII scientist Dr. Samrat Mondol, including a state-wise report, did not meet the “expected benchmarks.”

In the letter, the Ministry listed several suggestions to help the institute take corrective measures to conserve Asiatic elephants.

Problems with the Report

Mondol, the project investigator, was asked to provide a comprehensive justification for all the shortcomings listed. The Ministry also noted that the project has been ongoing for over four years now, and there is an expectation for more structured and clear documentation. “The current version lacks clarity, does not fully align with the standard format of a scientific report, and includes a high degree of similarity, which is a matter of concern,” the letter stated.

The Ministry also flagged basic issues involving grammatical errors and formatting problems. According to the Ministry, the introduction section appears to be copy-pasted from previous reports.

“Table 2 cites 1,688 samples, but demographic details are provided for only 786 captive elephants. The status of the remaining 902 samples is unclear—whether these are duplicates, failed extractions, or still pending analysis. Additionally, while 910 captive elephants are referenced in the genetic cluster analysis, it is unclear why only 786 are recorded in the database,” the letter further stated.