Asian elephant numbers under threat, says WWF
Copyright 2000
United Press International
December 12, 2000
By JOHN ZAROCOSTAS
GENEVA, Switzerland - Fierce competition for living space has resulted in fatal clashes between humans and elephants, a dramatic loss of forest cover, and has reduced the threatened Asian elephant numbers to around 35,000 to 50,000, or less than one-tenth of Africa's estimated total, warns a report by the environmental group WWF International.
Clearance of forests for settlements and agriculture, and ill planned development schemes "is disrupting traditional elephant migration routes and leading to violent clashes between humans and animals when hungry elephants raid crops."
As a result, the former co-existence has turned bitter with hundreds of people killed in Asia every year, with up to 300 deaths in India alone, the report said. The environmental group has 4.7 million members in 96 countries.
Most of these elephants that cling to survival "are being squeezed into increasingly smaller woodland areas," said Elizabeth Kemp, WWF Species Conservation Information Manager and co-author with Charles Santiapillai of the report "Asian Elephants in the Wild."
The report said animals are being poisoned by plantation workers, shot by angry farmers, and killed for their meat, hide and tusks. It concludes elephant numbers will continue to decline.
In India, about one-.third of the estimated present wild population of between 19,090 and 24,270 "face the prospect of elimination in the not too distant future," through loss of habitat and from development projects such as dams, plantations, railway lines and roads.
In Burma, the illegal trade in live elephants, ivory and hides across country's border with Thailand has become a serious conservation problem, notes the report.
The number of wild elephants has also declined in Indochina. Today, it is estimated that only between 200 and 500 are left in Cambodia, down from 1,500 -2, 000 estimated in 1992.
In neighboring Vietnam, the population of elephants in the wild has dropped from about 1,500-2000 in 1990 to under 150 today.