Idle elephants could save their species
MYANMAR Hundreds of unemployed elephants in Myanmar, laid off from the once-booming timber trade, have emerged as potential saviours of the animals’ population.
One of the largest surviving wild elephant populations in Asia is being pushed to the brink as hunters feed demand for their hides in neighbouring China. Dozens of carcasses, stripped of their skins, have been found by villagers in recent months.
Campaigners have warned that hunters are increasingly targeting mothers and their calves, which will accelerate the slide in Asian elephant numbers.
The World Wide Fund for Nature, which is helping Myanmar’s government to tackle the crisis, has said that the elephants have been almost wiped out in some areas, with just over 1000 left in the wild.
Among the solutions being discussed is a proposal to release captive elephants, laid off after a slump in the timber trade, back into the wild.
Myanmar has the world’s largest captive elephant population, at about 5000.
Three thousand of the captive elephants are state-owned. Many REUTERS of the 2000 privately held animals are kept in poor conditions, however, and it is these that activists are targeting. ‘‘There are parts where wild elephants have all but disappeared. We are looking at whether we can reintroduce captive elephants into depopulated areas,’’ said Christy Williams, director for the WWF in Myanmar. The Times