Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) in South Asia

About MIKE
Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) programme is an international
collaboration that keeps track of trends in illegal killing of elephants using data from
selected sample sites across Africa and Asia to serve as a barometer for the effectiveness
of on-the-ground elephant conservation efforts.
The data collected through MIKE provides vital information needed for elephant range
States to make appropriate management and enforcement decisions, and to build
institutional capacity for the long-term management of their elephant populations. It also
enables them to assess the effectiveness of their protection measures with specific
reference to wild elephants.
The programme was established by a resolution of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
(CITES) at its 10th Meeting (Harare, 1997).

How we work
MIKE operates in over 80 sites, spread across 43 elephant range States in Africa and Asia
to collate and analyse data and to build the capacity of elephant range States. MIKE has
developed and deployed practical and rigorous protocols and methods for data collection
Photo: Srikaanth Sekar
across all MIKE sites. These enforcement monitoring and ranger-based data collection
systems are not only useful to inform the international community about the status of illegal killing of elephants, but are also of great utility
for conservation area managers to adaptively manage the resources entrusted to them.
Since 2001, MIKE has succeeded in conveying to elephant range States and CITES Parties alike the importance of using objective data
and scientific evidence to inform decision-making at all levels of management, from the site through to the national and international levels
and also to assess the effectiveness of their conservation efforts.
By building capacity and setting standards to monitor elephant status and threats, MIKE has promoted international collaboration on the
challenges associated with elephant conservation and management. Importantly, the monitoring methods spearheaded by MIKE are
actively adopted by range States and are increasingly being used to monitor other species of interest, and are being deployed beyond the
designated MIKE sites.

Governance
MIKE is owned and implemented by the range States of African and Asian elephants, with technical assistance and coordination of the
CITES Secretariat and under the supervision of the CITES Standing Committee.
For the purposes of implementation, the African and Asian regions are divided into four and two sub-regions respectively. In each of these
sub-regions the implementation team is supervised by a Subregional Steering Committee comprising the national wildlife directors of the
range States, and facilitated by the MIKE Team. The MIKE Team is composed of a Central Coordinating Unit based at UNEP in Nairobi,
Kenya, and six Subregional Support Units. Each range State has a nominated National Officer and Site Officers as part of the core staff for
implementing the MIKE protocols in their country.

MIKE implementation on the ground is supported and facilitated by MIKE Subregional Support Units. IUCN hosts the sub-regional
support units in the four African sub-regions as well as in South Asia.
The MIKE Technical Advisory Group (TAG) is a group of volunteer elephant conservation experts which guides the technical quality of
the MIKE processes and methods, and acts as a peer-review group for MIKEs analytical outputs. The TAG is comprised of one expert
from each sub-region and six global specialists.

MIKE in South Asia

MIKE in South Asia was established in 2003 and was functional till 2006. With new funding from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the
MIKE Subregional Support Unit for South Asia was re-established in July 2015 and is hosted by the IUCN India Country Office in New
Delhi.

Country

Site

Area (km)

Bangladesh

Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary

78

Bhutan

Samtse Forest Division

India

Deomali Elephant Reserve

India

Dihing Patkai Elephant Reserve

India

Mysore Elephant Reserve

6,724

India

Wayanad Elephant Reserve

1,200

India

Garo Hills Elephant Reserve

3,500

India

Chirang Ripu Elephant Reserve

2,600

India

Mayurbhanj Elephant Reserve

7,043

India

Nilgiri Elephant Reserve

4,663

India

Shivalik Elephant Reserve

5,405

India

Eastern Dooars Elephant Reserve

978

Nepal

Royal Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve

305

Sri Lanka

Wilpattu National Park

1,500
900
937

1,317

Funding and Sustainability

The CITES Secretariat is grateful to the US Fish and Wildlife Service for financial support to re-launch MIKE in South Asia. The MIKE
team is actively working to put mechanisms in place to ensure the long-term sustainability of the MIKE Programme in South Asia, through
efforts to mainstream MIKE monitoring systems in the participating wildlife management agencies at site and national level, and through
the identification and tapping of new long-term funding sources.

Learn More
To find out more about MIKE in South Asia and on how to be part of this project please visit our website at http://cites.org/eng/prog/mike
or contact:
MIKE Subregional Support Unit - South Asia
Dr N M Ishwar
MIKE Sub Regional Support Officer
IUCN India Office
C 4/25, Safdarjung Development Area
New Delhi - 110 016
India
Telefax - +91 11 2652 7742
Email:n.m.ishwar@citesmike.org

MIKE Central Coordination Unit Nairobi

Julian Blanc
Coordinator
Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants
CITES Secretariat
PO Box 47074, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 205 125 174
Email: julian.blanc@cites.org