Saving the Asian Elephant
Executive Summary
he Asian elephant - a symbol that adorns flags and temple grounds
of royal kingdoms and worshipped as a god and honoured as a scribe
from India to Japan - is being squeezed out of its forest home
by unchecked logging, agricultural clearance, and illplanned
development schemes.
The continually growing human population of tropical Asia has
encroached upon the elephant's dense forest habitat. This fierce
competition for living space has resulted in human suffering,
a dramatic loss of forest cover, and reduced Asian elephant numbers
to 34,000 to 51,000 animals in the wild, or less than one tenth
of the estimated total of African elephants. Moreover, unlike
African elephant populations, Asian elephant populations are highly
fragmented with fewer than 10 populations comprising more than
1,000 individuals in a contiguous area, greatly decreasing longterm
viability.
Poaching for ivory, which is only found in Asian elephant males,
is severely damaging the sex ratio in some areas, notably southern
India. In addition, both sexes are poached for hide and increasingly
for their teeth. The hide is turned into bags and shoes, and both
products are smuggled to China for medical use.
The Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, whose ancestors originated
in Africa some 55 million years ago and ranged from modern Iraq
and Syria to the Yellow River in China, but is now found only
from India to Vietnam, with a tiny besieged population in the
extreme southwest of China's Yunnan Province. It is not only a
separate species from its African cousin Loxodonta africana,
but is also placed in a different genus.
The absence of good data from past times, and the difficulty of
counting elephants which live in thick tropical forests, means
that it is impossible to quantify a decline in Asian elephant
numbers, but it can be confidently assumed that destruction of
habitat has led to a large reduction in elephant populations -
and resulted in a serious loss of biodiversity throughout their
range.
Asian elephants live in the region of the world with the densest
human population, which is growing at about 3 per cent a year.
Clearance of forests for settlement and agriculture is disrupting
traditional elephant migration routes and leading to violent clashes
when hungry elephants raid crops. As a result, a once largely
peaceful coexistence has turned bitter on both sides. Hundreds
of people are killed by elephants in Asia every year, with up
to 300 deaths in India alone. Between 19901992, two elephant
populations, comprising no more than 50 individuals, killed 28
people in southern Vietnam.
Until only a few decades ago, thousands of wild elephants were
domesticated throughout Asia for use in battle, work in timber
extraction, construction, transport, and in religious, cultural,
and social activities. Today Burma has 4,600 registered working
elephants in the timber industry, and other Asian countries use
them for tourism, transport, and tracking during scientific expeditions.
Bangkok has 3,000 elephants unemployed since the country declared
a logging ban in 1989. In February 1995, the city banned the elephants
- brought in from the countryside - from its overcrowded streets
to protect the animals from heat exhaustion and pollution. Burma
has offered the elephants jobs in its timber industry.
The relationship between humans and elephants is so unique that
the animal has become a sacred and beloved deity. Effigies of
Ganesha, the elephantheaded god, with his plump humanlike
body, are found throughout Asia in village homes and on household
altars. His head is sometimes adorned with jewels. White elephants
are believed by many to be the reincarnation of Lord Buddha and
wars have been fought over them. Thus, the growing conflict between
humans and elephants is one of the most tragic and urgent challenges
facing governments today. Through WWFsupported projects
in Thailand, Vietnam, China, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bhutan,
Nepal, and Malaysia, this problem is being assessed and solutions
are being sought.
Because elephant herds range over such large areas, protection
is more difficult than for tigers and many other threatened species.
Large, wellmanaged reserves are required, but extended areas
in which human activities compatible with the existence of elephants
need to be established as "Managed Elephant Ranges".
Corridors linking reserves should be welldesigned and maintained.
Scientific research should also be increased in order to determine
elephant numbers and distribution. In addition, their social behaviour
needs further study.
People living in elephant areas should be assisted in protecting
their homes so that they do not turn hostile towards elephants.
Compensation should be paid to villagers for loss of crops and
help should be given to those whose relatives are killed by marauding
elephants. Ways in which to minimize the conflict need to be devised
as one of Asia's highest conservation priorities.
This could include elephant drives or safe, carefully planned
translocation of rogue animals, techniques for warding off troublesome
animals, reforestation programmes, public awareness and education,
monitoring of migrating elephant populations, avoidance of agricultural
clearance in migratory routes, and redesign of management areas
taking in the socioeconomic needs of the communities living
in or near elephant habitat.
Poaching for ivory has also taken a serious toll on tuskers, while
hunting for meat, hides, and other parts affects both sexes and
the young. In 1995, China announced death penalties for five men,
including two police, for involvement in poaching 16 elephants
for their tusks. The dead elephants represent 510 per cent
of China's known elephant population. Poaching for ivory by Laotians
and Vietnamese is a serious problem along their shared border
and incidents have also been reported in Burma and Malaysia and
in other elephant range states throughout Southeast Asia where
protection is weak. Elephant poaching in Sabah, Malaysia has risen
sharply since 1992, and although not yet a very serious threat,
it could easily escalate.
Therefore, regulations of the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) banning
trade in Asian elephant products should be strongly enforced.
Strict antipoaching measures should also be established
throughout the elephant's range, along with the monitoring of
vulnerable tuskers.
Nations with elephants need to incorporate the requirements of
elephants in their National Conservation Strategies, to formulate
specific National Elephant Strategies, and to implement them immediately.
In 1991, the government of India, in collaboration with the State
governments, launched Project Elephant, "a major conservation
effort aimed at preserving the gene pool of this unique species
and its natural habitats". In 1994, the government of Sri
Lanka, published its Elephant Action Plan in a country where it
is believed the animal has declined by almost 85 per cent since
the turn of the 19th century. Sabah, Malaysia is in the process
of finalizing its species management plan for elephants, based
on a draft completed in 1994. Neighbouring Vietnam, whose elephant
population has been reduced by an estimated 75 per cent in the
last 25 years, expects to launch its Elephant Action Plan in 1995.
Support for development and realization of national elephant strategies
should be provided by the international community. Richer governments
have a duty to give technical and financial aid to tackle urgent
human/elephant conflicts and to ensure that there are sufficient
welltrained personnel to deal with the sociological, economic
and ecological problems which threaten the survival of a heritage
that belongs not only to Asia but to all the world's peoples.
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