India, Oct. 16 -- LUCKNOW/LAKHIMPUR KHERI Even as the country saw a reduction in the population of tuskers, Uttar Pradesh is now home to 257 elephants, up from 232 in 2017, as per India's first DNA-based census.

The Status of Elephants in India: The Synchronised All India Elephant Estimation (SAIEE) 2021-2025 report, released on Tuesday, stated that India is estimated to have a total of 22,446 Asian elephants - almost 17% lower than the 2017 estimate, though experts said the two were not comparable.

Among the states, Karnataka supports the highest population with 6,013 elephants, followed by Assam 4,159, Tamil Nadu 3,136, Kerala 2,785, Uttarakhand 1,792 and Odisha 912.

The estimate of 22,466 elephants is lower than 27,000 elephants est...