But that didn’t happen. Estimates on the current size of the population on wild Asian elephants conclude that this has dramatically fallen to somewhere between 26,000 to 32,000 and it is now classed as an endangered species. And the biggest cause of that fact is man.
Huge population growth has led to a loss of habitat and the new human settlements have cut off ancient migratory routes and led to a rise in incidents of human/elephant conflict.
Of course we all know that a full grown elephant is a very large animal. It requires about 200kg of food each day (that’s about 31 stone to older readers!). So they are constantly on the move from one food source to another. However, these traditional routes now often have areas of cultivated land for local people, a farmer can literally lose his entire crop from one visit by a herd of elephants. And it’s not just their crops that suffer. Property is destroyed and humans are killed. This can lead to retaliation against the elephant who is seen as “the enemy” and some studies show that this is the main cause of the fall in the Asian elephant population.
Of course there are other threats as well. Elephants are still killed for their ivory and for their meat. Migratory routes are not just compromised by human settlements but by big infrastructure projects like roads, dams, mines and industrial developments. This leads to small isolated herds that are less viable in the long term and leads to an increase on inbreeding which further diminishes their wellbeing and ability to breed successfully.
A staggering 20 per cent of the world’s population lives in or near the present range of the Asian elephant and whilst some governments do work to find solutions, there is enormous political pressure to eliminate the elephant population near to human settlements.
A few years ago I went to Kenya with IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare) to see the projects they were helping to fund to reduce similar incidents of human/elephant conflict in Africa. These included:
Careful use of fencing (to protect livestock, or prevent incursions onto traditional elephant migratory routes);
Construction of water storage facilities for human communities;
Planting of certain crops to discourage elephant crop-raiding and provide alternative income for farmers;
Provision of micro-credit lending to help communities establish alternative income streams to replace those that compete with elephants for land use;
Education and community awareness programmes to help communities recognise the benefits of elephant populations and live in harmony with them;
Initiating community-owned wildlife sanctuaries;
Equipping and supporting rangers to be able to respond rapidly to incidences of human-elephant conflict.
Moreover I met the local communities and they were much more content that actually they could build and provide for their community and not have to see the elephant as a threat to their future. Of course this all costs money and it is important for a progressive political party such as Labour that we support funding to help such projects flourish in the future.
Aldo Leopold once said: ‘conservation is a state of harmony between men and land’. We know the methods that can create that harmony when it comes to protecting the Asian elephant population. We need to ensure this happens as a matter of priority, we don’t have much time left to save these magnificent creatures and that should be a source of concern for all of us.