Bhubaneswar, March 27: A state-wide elephant census will be conducted from May 8 to 12. The census is being carried out every two years to count the number of pachyderms in the state.

Principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Siddhant Das told The Telegraph: "We will go by two methods - direct sighting method and dung decay method."

"While direct sighting method will be adopted primarily, we will also adopt dung decay method to confirm the findings of the census," said Das adding that the second method will be applied for the first time in the state.

There are more than 2000 elephants in the state. The census exercise will be carried out in the 40 identified elephant habitats. The state has three elephant reserves - Simlipal, Mahanadi (Satkosia) and Sambalpur.

Various teams will be formed and deployed in 5-10 square kilometre area. They will monitor the pachyderms from raised platforms and there would be also foot patrolling between 8 am and 1 pm. Das said the census would be conducted all over the state on these four days. Wildlife department officials said training programmes for the enumerators had already been held. A state-level training programme was held in March second week at Bhubaneswar for the entire eastern region. An acclaimed elephant expert R. Sukumar gave valuable tips to the officials. A circle-level programme was organised in Puri yesterday.

The census exercise will be made on the 40 identified elephant habitats divisions out of 51 divisions of the state.

Similipal is one of major wildlife sanctuaries of the state where elephant casualties have been reported in large numbers in the past.

Sources said that elephants were falling prey to poachers who were hands-in-glove with the local tribals who, once in a year, engaged in mass hunting called Akhand Shikar.