Asian Elephant Countries Meet to Save the Endangered Species

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, January 27, 2006 (ENS) - The Asian elephant, once a symbol of a unique and sacred relationship between nature and humans, is now listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The increase in human–elephant conflicts, which claim the lives of several hundred animals and people every year, was identified as a major cause of elephant decline at a meeting this week of the 13 Asian countries where wild elephants still remain.

Representatives of the 13 Asian elephant range states gathered for the first time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in a three day meeting that concluded Thursday. Convened by the government of Malaysia, the meeting was facilitated by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and its Species Survival Commission (SSC).

"Many range states face similar problems. Therefore, the meeting focused on lessons learned and the sharing of expertise to help improve the Asian elephant’s fortunes. We hope that this meeting will only be the first step in a continuous fruitful process," says SSC Chair Dr. Holly Dublin.

Country populations vary from perhaps less than 100 elephants left in Vietnam to over 20,000 in India, but many population estimates are little more than guesses, the participants acknowledged.

Asian elephant populations are in decline due to human activities. (Photo courtesy Zoo School)

The situation facing the Asian elephant is "critical," the IUCN says. Just over five percent of the original Asian elephant habitat remains today, and its population has declined over the past half century to an estimated 30,000–50,000 animals in the wild - only 10-15 percent of the African elephant population.

Human-elephant conflict is now the major cause of individual elephant deaths, through indiscriminate poisoning, shooting and trapping, according to the IUCN. Meeting participants sought ways to minimize this conflict and integrate these strategies into land use to ensure the long term survival of the species.

This rise has become inevitable as Asian elephants have less and less natural habitat in which to feed and roam. Just 500,000 sq km of the former Asian elephant habitat remains today – out of an original nine million sq km.

South and Southeast Asia have the highest human population density in the world, and it is still increasing by one to three percent every year. This results in accelerated conversion of forest and other elephant habitat into agriculture and settlements, disrupting traditional elephant paths and reducing their food supply, the meeting concluded.

“The Asian elephant requires much larger areas of natural range than most other terrestrial mammals in Asia," says Ajay Desai, the other co-chair of the SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group.

"In order to coexist with humans we need to move from short term mitigation measures to long term land use planning strategies taking into account the species’ biological needs; otherwise we shall keep seeing the elimination of elephant populations in large parts of its range,” Desai warns.

Asian elephant mother and baby at Sir Lanka's Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage for young animals left behind when their parents are shot by farmers protecting their fields. Sixty elephants live at the orphanage and are now beginning to procreate there. (Photo courtesy Conserve Nature)

Illegal killing has reduced populations over wide areas in the Asian elephant ranges states - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.

Regional consensus on ways to secure the species’ future was the main aim of the Kuala Lumpur meeting and the need for transboundary cooperation was highlighted throughout the discussions.

Participants said the recognition of elephants as an economic asset instead of an agricultural pest, and realistic compensation payments to farmers for elephant damage would encourage local people to be more tolerant of the enormous mammals living nearby.

“The conservation of the Asian elephant will require a pragmatic synergy of scientific knowledge, cultural pride, and political will," says Dr. Dublin. "We hope we have managed to bring all these factors together at this meeting."

Asian elephants differ in several ways from their African relatives. They have smaller ears which are straight at the bottom, unlike the large fan-shaped ears of the African species.

And Asian elephants are much smaller, weighing between 6,615 and 11,020 pounds at a height of seven to 12 feet compared to the 8,820 to 15,430 pound African elephants that stand 10 to 13 feet tall.

The evolutionary lines of these two elephant species have been separate for about five million years, and some studies suggest that Asian elephants were more closely related to the extinct wooly mammoths of the past than they are to African elephants of today.