World Elephant day underlines gravely declining population

Elephants could mostly be extinct by the end of the next decade

The population of Elephants around the world has dropped by 62% in the last decade alone with a nearly a hundred being killed daily. The majestic creatures could mostly likely be extinct by the end of the next decade, according to worldelephantday.org.

The level of elephant poaching for ivory tusks has reached heights not seen since the 1970s. PHOTO: REUTERS

Canadian film-maker and co-creator of World Elephant Day  reveals, “Each year, approximately 30,000 African elephants are slaughtered to supply the illegal ivory trade that feeds an insatiable demand for ivory in consumer markets in China, Thailand, and many other countries including the USA and the UK.”

The illegal ivory trade brings in $100-million in profits each year, according to the United Nations. PHOTO: AFP

Research reveals we are losing more elephants than the population is able to reproduce, risking the future of the African elephant. The demand for ivory, due to which tens of thousands of elephants have been illegally hunted and slaughtered, must be reduced if elephants are to be protected.

Tourists in Botswana's Chobe National Park in March 2015. PHOTO: AFP

While the Asian elephant is also hunted for its tusks, meat and body parts, they also suffer from habitat loss due to spread of cities and industrial mono-crops such as palm oil and rubber plantations.

Read: Hong Kong ivory trade 'major threat' to elephant survival: report

 

Elephants can be saved by implementing stricter protection laws for wild elephants at local and international levels, suggest world elephant day.org

PHOTO: AFP

Renowned anthropologist  Dr Jane Goodall says, “I can never forgive the people involved in this wholesale slaughter of these incredible beings. Trunks hacked off and thrown aside. Tusks hacked off. Even really young elephants are killed for the sake of their tiny tusks.”

PHOTO: Paul Goldstein/Exodus/REX

“I have spent hours and hours watching elephants, and come to understand what emotional creatures they are…it’s not just a species facing extinction, it’s massive individual suffering.”