A two-day national workshop on the conservation and management of wild elephants and gaur was held at Sanjay Tiger Reserve, Sidhi. Gaur and elephant conservation experts from various states across the country, including Madhya Pradesh, participated in the workshop. The workshop was held on November 20th and 21st, 2025, at Sanjay Tiger Reserve in Sidhi, a joint effort by the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department and the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. Its objective is to develop more effective action plans for the conservation of large herbivorous wildlife in the state.
The gaur became extinct from Sanjay Tiger Reserve in 1995. To restore the gaur, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department and Sanjay Tiger Reserve launched an ambitious gaur reintroduction program in 2023. Under this program, 50 gaur were brought from Kanha and Satpura Tiger Reserves in two phases, and their number has now increased to 62.
Similarly, the number of wild elephants is also steadily increasing. Currently, 12 wild elephants regularly roam the Sanjay Tiger Reserve. Elephants also migrate from Chhattisgarh and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve from time to time. In Madhya Pradesh, apart from Bandhavgarh, Sanjay Tiger Reserve is the only area where both gaur and wild elephants are permanently present.
Senior officials from the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, gaur and elephant conservation experts, scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India, representatives from various NGOs, and the Field Director and Deputy Director of Nagarjuna Sagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve in Andhra Pradesh also participated in the workshop.
