With reference to Indian elephants, consider the following statements:
1. The leader of an elephant group is a female.
2. The maximum gestation period can be 22 months.
3. An elephant can normally go on calving till the age of 40 years only.
4. Among the States in India, the highest elephant population is in Kerala.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Explanation
Statement 1 is correct: Asian elephant herds exhibit a strictly matriarchal social hierarchy, organized in cohesive family units led by the oldest and largest reproductive female, known as the matriarch.
Statement 2 is correct: Elephants have the longest gestation period of all terrestrial mammals, ranging between 18 and 22 months (up to roughly 680 days).
Statement 3 is incorrect: Female Asian elephants reach sexual maturity around age 10 to 12 and can continue reproducing and giving birth well into their fifties, often calving up to age 50 to 60.
Statement 4 is incorrect: According to official Elephant Census figures from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Karnataka harbours the largest wild elephant population in India (over 6,000 elephants), followed by Assam and Kerala.
Therefore, only statements 1 and 2 are correct — Option A.