Mangaluru: Bengaluru-based elephant ecologist Dr Rudraditya is touring the bordering regions and forest areas of Dakshina Kannada district, which are .
years covering the iconic elephant population. in 2016, he traveled exclusively with the great elephant census to see the plight of the animals firsthand. reporter: getting ready to ply in botswana s far north. an elephant ecologist has spent years counting savannah elephant from the sky. never before have we ever conducted a standardized survey for african elephants at a continental scale. all right. start counting. nice speed. nice height. well done. reporter: hundreds of air crew counted elephants in 18 countries across the continent. over two years. elephants 7. 7 elephants, right? reporter: flying the distance to the moon and then some. their results, more shocking than anyone imagined. we spent thousands of hours of count, flying over areas