Threats to the Asian Elephant
The Threats to the Asian Elephant
Habitat loss
bout 20 per cent of the world's human
population lives in or near the present range of the Asian elephant.
With human numbers increasing at a rate of about three per cent
per annum, this could mean doubling the population in 23 years.
Therein lies the root of the problem of conserving the Asian elephant.
The elephant's forest home has already been reduced to a fraction
of what it once was in most countries in its range. India's formerly
extensive forests, where elephants roamed widely, now cover less
than 20 per cent of the country, and barely half that is suitable
for elephants. The central India population has been seriously
fragmented. Thailand has cleared almost all its lowland forest,
creating a huge void of wildlife habitat in the heart of the country.
On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, vast areas of forest are
being cleared to accommodate millions of people, resettled from
the crowded islands of Java, Bali, and Madura. IndoChina's
forests were seriously damaged during 30 years of constant warfare,
particularly by the use of chemical defoliants, napalm, and massive
bombing during the US/Vietnamese conflict. However, more forest
land has been cleared since the Vietnam war ended than during
it. In Sri Lanka, the vast Mahaweli River Valley Project for settlement,
crops, and irrigation cuts a wide swathe through the heart of
elephant country. Burma, Cambodia, and Laos still have considerable
forest cover, but this is suffering from unmanaged and unsustainable
logging.
Fragmentation of habitat
The fragmentation of the elephant's forest habitat is particularly
damaging. Elephants migrate with the seasons to find the best
feeding areas. Now the migration routes have been disrupted and
herds are constantly confronted by new settlements and agriculture,
where they are not welcome. When they invade crops, and sometimes
villages, there are violent clashes as people try to drive them
away with fire, muzzleloading guns, and crude bombs. Elephants
and people are killed and injured - the elephant, a lovable animal
for the world at large, has become a nightmare for many living
in its range.
The situation is particularly tragic when elephants are "pocketed"
in small patches of forest, which cannot meet their food and water
requirements, and from which they have no way to escape. Killing
the elephants is not an acceptable option in many parts of Asia,
and particularly in India, but demand for working elephants is
limited.
Mortality during capture of wild elephants
Capture of wild elephants for domestic use has become a threat
to wild populations where numbers have been seriously reduced.
Because of the long years of infancy, when an elephant is not
capable of work, it has been the custom to take wild elephants
and train them rather than breed from domesticated animals. India
has banned capture in order to conserve its wild herds, but in
Burma hundreds are caught each year for the timber industry. Unfortunately,
crude capture methods have led to a high level of deaths and efforts
are being made, not only to improve safety, but also to encourage
captive breeding rather than taking from the wild.
Poaching
Male Asian elephants have suffered from the ivory trade, like
their African cousins, both male and female. This is by no means
a new phenomenon, for ivory has been a valued substance from time
immemorial, and Asian artists and craftsmen have always been renowned
for their skills in transforming tusks into complex and beautiful
objects.
Despite legal protection of all elephants in the country, tuskers
in southern India have been particularly hard hit, and few remain
of the magnificent specimens that once roamed the land. Some of
the ivory was illegally used locally because, until recently,
African ivory was imported for carving by Indian craftsmen and
it was difficult to distinguish between the two varieties. Apart
from tusks used within India, tusks were smuggled out of the country,
often to Arabian countries.
China recently passed the death sentence on five men, including
two policemen, accused of involvement in poaching 16 elephants
(510% of the known population) for their tusks. Fourteen
others were given suspended death sentences, life sentences, or
unspecified gaol terms. Recent reports indicate poaching for ivory
and hide is increasing in Laos, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
Poaching for meat, hide, and bones occurs in some areas, including
upper Burma. Hide is smuggled to Thailand, where it is turned
into bags and shoes, and to China, where the ash is used to treat
ulcers and wounds. Bone ash is prescribed for stomach problems.
Genetic Threat
There has been concern about the genetic effects of reducing the
number of big tuskers. However, an elephant with large tusks will
have contributed its genes to the population. Danger arises when
the big tuskers are eliminated and poachers find that killing
immature males for their small tusks is worthwhile. When tuskers
are killed, the number of males in a population decreases, resulting
in skewed sex ratios. The latter increases genetic drift which
leads to inbreeding and eventually to high juvenile mortality
and low breeding success. Removing tuskers also reduces gene exchange
by these longer ranging loners that mate with females of different
subpopulations. In populations with a high ratio of makanas,
or large tuskless males, the sex ratio would be better balanced,
reducing adverse genetic effects.
Disease
A recent outbreak of Haemorrhagic Pepticaemia, a cattle
disease that is rare among elephants, was responsible for the
deaths of several animals in Sri Lanka's Uda Walawe National Park
in May 1994 (Santiapillai). In small herds of elephants,
epidemics could wipe out entire groups.
Approximate distribution of Elephants in India
Sources: Lahiri-Choudhury (1980); Nair et al. (1980); Shahi (1980); Sukumar (1986)
Through its regional state affiliates, WWFIndia has assisted
in environmental awareness programmes, aimed especially at reducing
conflict between wildlife and people living in and around protected
areas including Bandipur, Mudumalai, and Dudhwa. Recently, WWFIndia
formulated an action plan for conserving the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve
which also has an elephant population. The Community Biodiversity
Conservation Programme has funded studies in relocated villages
of the Chandaka Elephant Reserve in Orissa, and its Conservation
Corps Volunteers have been studying humanelephant conflicts
in north Bengal.
Elephants occur in several of India's famous national parks, including
Corbett and Kaziranga National Parks and Manas Tiger Reserve,
as well as in many smaller wildlife and forest reserves. However,
few of them are large enough to contain a resident population
within their boundaries and problems are bound to occur when elephants
range outside in search of food and water. Ivory poaching is a
particular problem in southern India, where there is a long tradition
of carving.
From 1976 to 1982, WWF was involved in a series of projects aimed
at conserving elephants in the four main areas. During this period,
WWF aided conservation of Asian elephants throughout the range
states mainly through support to the IUCN/SSC's Asian Elephant
Specialist Group. In India, four task forces of the group surveyed
and monitored elephant status and habitat in the northwest, south,
central, and northeast. The earliest assisted the Government in
identifying and protecting the watershed areas of the Western
Ghats, which contain some of India's finest elephant habitat.
As a direct result, a 5,500km2 area protecting elephant
ranges north of the Palghat Gap was later declared a Biosphere
Reserve. Today, this area contains a population of about 2,500
elephants. A census of elephants south of the Palghat Gap in the
Anamalai Hills and neighbouring Kerala forests was conducted in
19811982: although the habitat was found to be adequate,
elephant numbers were lower than expected - many elephants had
been captured from this population in the past century. Seasonal
migration patterns have been disrupted because of hydroelectric
and irrigation schemes.
IUCN's Asian elephant Specialist Group
In central India, the status and ecology of elephants in Bihar
and Orissa were studied. Distribution, numbers, ecology and human/elephant
conflicts were evaluated with the collaboration of the Asian Elephant
Specialist Group of IUCN/SSC. Elsewhere in India, the elephant
populations of the northeast were the focus of another WWF funded
project. Again, their numbers and distribution were charted and
enough data collected to prepare a master plan to enable the Forest
Department to act. There are an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 wild
elephants in the region, in fragmented populations, and at least
half live entirely outside protected areas. The West Meghalaya
population (2,5003,000) is probably the most threatened
population of its size throughout the entire range of the Asian
elephant. Other WWF projects in India have been concerned with
support to protected areas, including Kaziranga.
In 1988, WWFIndia was involved in setting up the IUCN Asian
Elephant Conservation Centre at the Centre for Ecological Studies
at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.
Project Elephant
WWF has spent almost US$290,000 on elephants and their habitats
in India. Currently, WWFIndia supports a number of national
parks containing elephants under Project Tiger, spending US$53,000
to date. WWF also supported the establishment of TRAFFICIndia
to help the government of India abide by its obligations to regulate
trade in wildlife products, including ivory, under CITES. Expenditure
to date on TRAFFICIndia and other wildlife trade monitoring
is over US$1,000,000.
In 1991, the government of India initiated Project Elephant. This
is a nationwide attempt to manage both wild and captive elephant
populations throughout India. The project proposes to establish
Elephant Reserves to protect the range of as many populations
as possible, to establish corridors between these reserves, and
to accommodate the socioeconomic needs of people living
within elephant range areas. The welfare of captive elephant populations
is also a concern. Recently, WWFIndia's SecretaryGeneral
was a member of the Government Task Force set up to identify Project
Elephant reserves.
Thailand's Elephant and Forest Conservation Fund
In 1979, WWF funded one of the early surveys of elephant status
and distribution in Thailand. The survey identified the need to
enlarge existing protected areas and create new ones in order
to encompass more of the elephants' dwindling range. It also identified
Khao Yai national park, which contained one of the largest elephant
populations in Thailand, as the most suitable venue for further
research on elephant ecology. Thus began a series of projects
at Khao Yai, starting with a more exhaustive survey of elephants
in 1980 and later a range of activities in collaboration with
Thailand's Royal Forest Department to address management problems.
By working with communities along the Park's boundaries, Wildlife
Fund Thailand (with support from WWF) and other local NGOs began
an attempt to integrate conservation with rural development in
1983.
Khao Yai contains about 10 per cent of all Thailand's remaining
elephants, and elephants have served as a central theme throughout
the community outreach scheme. Khao Yai's buffer zone and sustainable
development programme is one of the best known in Asia.
The lessons learned in Khao Yai have proved valuable in addressing
the needs of rural communities living near other protected areas
in Thailand. The Huai Kha Khaeng/ Thung Yai (HKK/TY) Reserve is
the largest protected area complex in Thailand, and contains a
rich and varied flora and fauna, including 250300 elephants
and tigers. Like other such areas, it is threatened by forest
fires and encroachment, and elephants and other wildlife are poached.
WWF has been funding studies on the biodiversity of the reserve
and assisting the Wildlife Conservation Division in coordinating
all conservation activities in the area including management of
the buffer zone and providing conservation education to local
communities. The 1994/95 budget for HKK/TY is around US$130,000,
not including coordination costs.
In 1993, WWF supported and participated in the launch of the Elephant
and Forest Conservation Fund. One year later, Wildlife Fund Thailand,
the Royal Forestry Department and Amway Thailand celebrated the
fund's first anniversary with the announcement and publication
of the results of a 12month research programme at Khao Yai
National Park, carried out with partial funding by WWF. One of
the main objectives of this project is to gain grassroots cooperation
to protect the wild elephant, which is still under threat from
poachers. Further research and a public awareness and fundraising
campaign are being planned to conserve the elephant. The two target
groups at which the campaign will be aimed are: tourists (some
900,000 people visit Khao Yai each year) who will be advised on
how to avoid disturbing animals and their habitat, and people
living from the forest. The latter depend on the forest as a source
of food and often hunt elephants. The fund recommended that the
groups be helped in developing alternative livelihoods and be
provided with assistance and education. In addition to funding
by WFT and the United States Agency for International Development,
WWF has budgeted around US$63,000 for the Khao Yai TEAM (The Environmental
Awareness and Development Mobilization) project this year. So
far, WWF has spent over US$400,000 in projects relating to elephants
and their habitat in Thailand.
Indonesia
Since 1966 WWF has worked with Indonesia's Directorate General
Forest Protection of Nature Conservation (PHPA) to carry out a
number of projects and develop and manage protected areas. In
the 1980s, WWF assisted surveys of large mammals, particularly
elephants, in Sumatra, in order to advise the PHPA on their management.
One of the early findings was that elephant numbers had been grossly
underestimated in the past: in one heavily forested area, thought
to contain 80 elephants, over 232 were flushed out using army
personnel and helicopters (nowadays more subtle methods are used
for counting elephants in forests). Further research on the distribution
and ecology of elephants will be useful for improved management
and resolution of human/elephant conflicts. Currently work is
being carried out to determine how to manage wild elephants in
north Sumatra.
The Way Kambas National Park is unique in that it has an Elephant
Training School, set up in 1984. Among other development activities,
WWF assisted in improving the nature trail used by visitors, using
trained elephants. Problem elephants have also been successfully
transferred to the training school, with all due caution that
needs to be exercised during translocation.
However, WWF's Indonesia Programme feels that capturing and taming
elephants does not solve the root of the problem: habitat loss
and agriculture development which invites crop raiding. Thus,
the Indonesia Programme is examining ways to solve the human/elephant
conflict and undertaking public awareness activities with the
media to help both government officials and the general public
to better understand the problems.
Gunung Leuser
WWF's connections with Gunung Leuser, Indonesia's second
largest protected area, go back to the early 1970s when assistance
was given for a variety of management and research activities.
Gunung Leuser, now the centre of a thriving tourist industry,
is still a focus of WWF Indonesia activity. Leuser's elephants
are far from secure: loss of habitat has led to the populations
being fragmented and then are in danger of dying out. Recently,
teams surveyed elephant migration patterns in and outside the
northeast part of the park (where dam construction, possible transmigration
areas and heavy logging pose threats), with a view to rejoining
fragmented elephant populations through corridors. The biggest
challenge for managers of the Gunung Leuser National Park is trying
to find a way to solve the conflicts occurring in the peoplepark
interaction zones at the park periphery. Recently, WWF redesigned
a project for protection of Gunung Leuser with a focus on resolving
this conflict. WWF hopes to strengthen local capacities and develop
communitybased enterprises with government support. With
matching funds from Britain's Overseas Development Agency, WWF
has budgeted around US$500,000 for a variety of activities including
elephant conservation from 1994 to 1997.
KerinciSeblat
KerinciSeblat was gazetted as a National Park in
1981 and is the largest protected area complex in Sumatra. It
extends into four provinces of western Sumatra and includes some
of the best closedcanopy forest along the country's spine.
The forest contains elephants, tigers, and rhinos and is considered
one of the most biologically diverse areas in Southeast Asia.
Many communities live along the park's border and nearly 300,000
people live in an enclave inside the park. This enclave
is believed to be the world's biggest human enclave, with an annual
population growth rate of around 2.4 per cent. WWF has been working
since 1991 with local communities to resolve some of the conflicts
which inevitably arise when peoples' interests and conservation
needs differ. Early this year, park staff reported that they have
managed to stabilize the boundary around the enclave. Nurturing
and strengthening of conservation activities by NGOs and local
communities located in areas surrounding the park is one of the
main objectives of the project. WWF's budget from 1990 to 1996
for support of conservation activities in and around Kerinci Seblat
is around US$750,000.
Tigapuluh Hills
The Tigapuluh Hills (Seberida) in the eastern lowlands
of Sumatra are a biologically rich area of rainforest which contains
a small number of elephants. Proposed as a nature reserve as far
back as 1983, progress has been made towards achieving that goal.
The Ministry of Forestry has decided to withdraw some logging
concession in the area of the proposed Seberida Nature Reserve
in eastcentral Sumatra, and to move immediately toward establishing
a new national park, Bukit Tigapuluh. WWF is looking at ways to
speed up the process of declaring it a protected area and developing
an integrated conservation/development project involving local
communities.
Nepal
WWF has been involved for many years in helping to develop,
protect, and manage Nepal's national parks and reserves. Under
the `Operation Tiger' banner, WWF has funded activities in Royal
Chitwan National Park, Royal Sukhla Phanta Wildlife Reserve and
Royal Bardia National Park which all contain small numbers of
elephants. The wild population of elephants in Nepal is about
70 and these animals are scattered in three areas in eastern,
central, and far western Nepal. WWF has no specific elephant project
in Nepal but it aids conservation of elephants indirectly in most
reserves through its institutional support programme and park
management assistance. WWF has been supporting species and habitat
conservation in Bardia National Park, as in Chitwan, since 1973.
So far, over US$200,00 has been allocated for conservation activities
in Bardia. WWF has also developed, in close cooperation with the
King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), and the Parks
Department, a communitybased sustainable development and
biological diversity conservation programme with a budget, in
19941997, of around US$150,000. In addition, WWF has developed,
as part of the Biodiversity Conservation Network, a consortium
made up of WWF, the Nature Conservancy, and the World Resources
Institute, a project that will eventually involve 60,000 subsistence
farmers living around Chitwan.
Bhutan

WWF has been associated with conservation in Bhutan since
1977 and currently has a range of projects concerned with community
awareness and conservation education. Technical and other assistance
to the Forestry Services Division, which oversees Bhutan's protected
areas, is also playing an important role in protecting elephant
habitat. Assistance, amounting to US$500,000, has been given to
Royal Manas National Park for years under Operation Tiger.
All the existing wild elephant populations in Bhutan are found
along the border with India, in several forest reserves and wildlife
sanctuaries, the most famous being Royal Manas National Park.
Traditionally, elephants have made seasonal migrations in the
wet summer months out of Bhutan's forests in the Himalayan foothills,
to India's grasslands. As the grasslands mature and dry out they
return to their winter range in Bhutan. Now these movements are
blocked by human settlements and are no longer possible in many
areas. The estimated population of wild elephants in Bhutan in
1990 was 60 to 150. However, recent estimates are between 2,000
to 3,000. This sharp increase does not represent a drastic rise
in numbers. These elephants are migrant populations and can be
found either in Bhutan or India depending on the season and food
availability. It is thought that as many 3,000 elephants spend
the summer in Bhutan, most of which migrate to Phibsoo Wildlife
Sanctuary, Khaling, and the Royal Manas National Park, which is
contiguous with the Manas Tiger Reserve in India. Only Manas is
large enough to hold a resident elephant population. Royal Manas
is the oldest protected area in Bhutan, having been set up in
1966 as a Wildlife Sanctuary and upgraded to National Park status
in 1988. So far, WWF has allocated about US$500,000 for Manas
to help the Forestry Services Division establish a basic infrastructure,
construction of guard posts, patrol roads, staff housing trails,
watch towers, water holes, demarcation of park boundaries, and
provision of field equipment. WWF's current project which focuses
on finalizing and helping implement a long term management plan
for Royal Manas National Park, including biodiversity assessment,
mapping distribution and density and activities with communities
living adjacent to the park, has a budget of around US$500,000
for 19951998. In addition, WWF has budgeted nearly US$70,000
for institutional support for Bhutan's Forestry Services Division
from 1995 to 1997. WWF's antipoaching programm has been
allocated US$20,190 for 19951996
.
Vietnam
For over a decade WWF has been actively involved in conservation
activities in Vietnam beginning with assistance in helping the
country develop its National Conservation Strategy and
researching the environmental effects of war. In June 1995, WWF
and the Ministry of Forestry convened an elephant workshop, inviting
representatives from 15 provinces with wild elephant populations.
The workshop produced a draft Elephant Action Plan for Vietnam
elephant populations, whose estimated numbers have been reduced
by 75 per cent in the last 25 years. WWF began survey work of
elephants and other large mammals in Vietnam in 1990 under a Biodiversity
Conservation Studies Project for which over US$200,000 has been
spent to support Vietnamese and international scientists. Specific
elephant surveys in the past few years have revealed that there
may be as few as 300 to 400 elephants remaining, mainly in isolated
forest pockets that are shrinking rapidly. In 19911992 WWF
funded a feasibility study and training programme on translocation
techniques, but no successful translocation of elephants has taken
place in Vietnam yet. In fact, some 15 elephants died through
a failed attempt undertaken independently by a private Singapore
company to move an isolated herd in 1993. Vietnam is hoping that
it can generate support for its Elephant Action Plan and the critically
endangered species whose greatest threat in Vietnam is loss of
its forest habitat. Recent reports indicate male elephants are
being poached for ivory and other products.
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