# Supreme Court orders nationwide survey of elephant corridors 2026-08-17T18:26:08+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre to conduct a fresh nationwide survey of elephant corridors and ensure that no state blocks the traditional pathways of wild elephants. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana said blockading corridors is not a solution to human-animal conflict. The court also reiterated its 2018 ban on using fireballs, mashaals (fire-torches), and spikes to chase elephants, calling such practices barbaric and illegal. The court was hearing a plea by advocate Shibani Ghosh, who submitted that fireballs continue to be used in West Bengal despite the earlier ban. Justice Bagchi noted that the practice is prevalent in West Bengal because elephants come from Nepal and travel through the state to Jharkhand. Chief Justice Kant observed that elephants in Haryana's Yamuna Nagar travel to Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The court gave the Centre six to eight weeks to file a status report. ## Coverage - thehindu.com - rediff.com This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-08-17T22:31:06+00:00. Tags: elephant corridors, Supreme Court of India, Surya Kant, West Bengal, Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-orders-nationwide-survey-of-elephant-corridors/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/supreme-court-orders-nationwide-survey-of-elephant-corridors/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/