33 elephants killed by poachers

33 elephants killed in 18 months by tuskers as five smugglers and poachers admitted that their gang killed at least 15 in Western Ghats,Tamil Nadu’s Ootty, Coimbatore and Meghamalai forests in India and traded more than 200 kg of Ivory.

Elephant numbers have dropped by 62 per cent over the last decade, and they could be mostly extinct by the end of the next decade. An insatiable lust for ivory products in the Asian markets makes the illegal ivory trade extremely profitable and has led to the slaughter of tens and thousands of elephants world over. The price of illegal ivory trade in China has tripled, accelerating illicit poaching. If the elephants are to survive, the passion and demand for ivory must be drastically reduced or totally stopped.

Elephants create and maintain the ecosystems in which they live and make it possible for a myriad of plant and animal species to live in those environments. The loss of elephants gravely affects many species that depend on elephant-maintained ecosystems and causes major habitat chaos and a weakening to the structure and diversity of nature itself.

 Five Ivory hunters arrested by Kerala forest department have confessed to poaching enormous proportions – confirming a toll of 100 in the last 18 months. There are two more gangs operating in the forests   of Western Ghats where they have killed over 50 elephants for ivory.

 As of 2011, he world is losing more elephants than population can reproduce, threatening the future of elephants across the world. The Asian elephant, who habitat ranges in 13 Asian countries is an endangered species with less than 40,000 remaining worldwide, less than a tenth of the African population. In India alone, between 1975 and 1995 over 2000 elephants were poached in the southern forests.

 The population of wild elephants have recovered since with more than 6000 elephants now in Kerala and 4000 in Tamil Nadu.

We can save elephants by implementing stronger protection policies for wild elephants at both local and international levels of government, stronger and faster enforcement and legislative measures against the poaching and illegal trade of ivory and better management of natural elephant habitats. Elephants need help and protection and are running out of space and time or before we know it, they will be all be gone –unless we collectively stop the senseless poaching and consumer demand for ivory.