India’s top court has ordered tough new steps to protect wild elephant herds as habitat loss and human-elephant conflict intensify, a move welcomed by campaigners on Friday.

The world’s most populous nation is also home to the majority of Asian elephants, a species listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and whose habitat is increasingly being sliced up by highways and railways or clawed up by mines.

The Supreme Court has directed states to prevent the blockage of elephant corridors — routes used by herds to move between rapidly shrinking habitats — and ordered a survey to identify obstructions along those routes.

That must include steps to end the use of any “coercive measure to divert the natural movement of the elephants”, it read.

A ban on “hulla parties” — groups deployed to drive elephants away using “fireballs” and burning stakes — is required, it said.

The court ruling, issued on Monday, said ministry guidelines were already in place to ensure “unobstructed” elephant corridors, but those routes have often been impeded.

Wildlife conservationist Prerna Singh Bindra, who led the pro bono public interest case, told AFP her petition had challenged state governments “supporting horrifically cruel practices”.

“It becomes a mob situation with thousands of people chasing the elephants using burning spears,” she said.

“That does nothing to resolve conflict; science shows it only exacerbates the conflict.”

There are fewer than 50,000 Asian elephants in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund — most in India, with others in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Elephants are protected by law, are named as India’s “national heritage animal”, and many followers of the elephant-headed Hindu deity Ganesh see the animals as sacred.

But they face mounting pressure from habitat loss, fragmentation, and increasing human-elephant conflict.

Bindra, a former member of India’s top governing body for wildlife conservation and policy, the National Board for Wildlife, said the court’s order was needed to ensure the survival of elephants in one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

“We know where elephant corridors and habitats are — and they are being destroyed and fragmented at an unprecedented pace,” Bindra said.

“The will to protect and preserve is markedly absent. We hope with this Supreme Court order, this survey must lead to action.”