But all's not well with her lot today. The corridors that helped her move around are fast depleting, posing a threat to her survival. In an attempt to better the situation, the Department of Environment and Forest has identified depleting elephant corridors in the country.

Wildlife wing director S.C Sharma says: ``The elephants can't cross over from the east to west of the Ganges as the elephant corridors near Hardwar and Rishikesh are fast disappearing. The animals can't go over to Ram Ganga as a chain of hotels separate one area of the forest from another.''

A thousand odd elephants inhabit the forests of Uttar Pradesh. At least eight to ten thousand elephants live in the forests South, of primarily, in the states of Tamil Nadu,Kerala and Karnataka. Palghat is a fast depleting corridor on the Western Ghats that needs immediate attention.

Same is the plight of corridors in the foothills of the Himalayas in the north-eastern states where seven to eight thousand elephants live. The Central Government is working with its Bhutanese counterparts to rehabilitate a corridor linking the forests in the two countries. There are 3,000 elephants in the Bihar-Orissa-West Bengal region and it is this area that which is apparently the worst affected. According to a study conducted by the Orissa government, the elephant population in the state has fallen by 22 per cent (from an approximate headcount of 2044 in 1979 to 1600 in 1999) due to depleting corridors caused by large scale deforestation, encroachment and poaching.

The survey identified five main corridors in the state and two others linking Bihar and Orissa as `threatened.' The Orissa report states that the Simlipal corridor is threatened by mining activity at the Boula chromite mines.The traffic on the national highway has affected Satsokia corridor. The Forest Department blames state government: ``The laws against deforestation and poaching are same in every state. However, Orissa poses a major problem as they do not have the required infrastructural machinery to implement the laws seriously.''

The state government is optimistic. Orissa wildlife wing director D.S Patnaik said: ``What we need are measures to increase awareness about effects of deforestation. Laws against poaching need to be seriously implemented. Lop-sided developmental activity must stop.''