From 27 million elephants 350 years ago, Africa now has about 400,000 left, and roughly 9% of those are being killed each year, Kotze said. More than 35,000 elephants are killed across Africa every year for their tusks, which are prized, especially in China, where 37 ivory carving factories and 130 retail outlets, are engaged in the manufacture and sale of decorative items and trinkets. Wildlife crime is worth an estimated US$20Bn a year and many claim that terrorist organisations like al-Shabaab use ivory trafficking and exchange ivory for weapons.
The killing of just a few bulls can have mighty consequences
Poaching figures in India may not be as alarming as in Africa but seen in the context of numbers it may be seen that percentages are high as India has approximately 40,000 as against 400,000 in Africa. Secondly, only male Asian elephants have tusks of any substantial size, which is one of the main reasons that they have not been poached to quite the same extent. Thirdly, most of the large bulls had already been poached during the last ivory crisis in the 1970s and 1980s. This has resulted in a dangerous imbalance between males and females, down to as few as 1 to 100 in some areas.
Elephant expert Raman Sukumar has even estimated that India may have as few as 1,200 breeding males left from a total population of around 28,000 elephants. The male-female ratio is of particular concern in Simlipal National Park where a mature bull has not even been seen for some time. The killing of just a handful of bulls can threaten an entire population’s ability to reproduce, something it can ill-afford when already having to contend with so many other threats.
Investing in solutions that work
In partnership with the Wildlife Protection Society of India, an organization called Elephant Family has been investing in a number of initiatives to keep the ivory poachers at bay. In Kerala state, a poaching hotspot, they have provided much-needed equipment and training to support the Forest Department rangers in keeping one step ahead of the poachers. Around Simlipal National Park, an awareness campaign and the formation of 100 village committees, has engaged the local communities in the protection of the park, making them the eyes and ears of the forest, reporting any poaching or illegal activity so that the Forest Department can intervene quickly and effectively.
Conservation campaigners have let out the warning that due to poaching of ivory, elephants could be wiped out within the next two decades. Elephants are an important cultural icon in India. According to Indian mythology, the gods (devas) and the demons (asura) churned the oceans in a search for the elixir of life – ‘amrit’ (nectar) – so that they would become immortal. As they did so, the ‘navratnas’ (nine jewels) surfaced, one of which was the elephant. The main threat facing Indian elephants, like all Asian elephants is loss of habitat and the resulting human-elephant conflict. In south Asia, it is the quest for land by an ever increasing human population that causes many illegal encroachments in elephant habitat, thus causing habitat loss and fragmentation. In some cases, it is development activities, such as roads, railway tracks, in crucial corridor areas that fragment the habitat.
WWF has been making conservation efforts for elephants in South Asia include limiting human impacts on elephant populations in the Western Terai region. Simultaneously their activities in Nilgiris-Eastern Ghats, aim to prevent further habitat loss and, most importantly, lower anger levels of the local population against elephants. Through theAsian Rhinos and Elephants Action Strategy (AREAS), WWF invests each year into anti-poaching operations, and the program is currently helping to develop an anti-poaching strategy. Their efforts need to be supplemented by the State and Central Governments by making and implementing effective anti poaching legislations to ensure the survival of the elephant.
