The Conservation Status of Wild
Elephants in Thailand
Overview
Thailand is one of the thirteen range countries where some
50,000 wild Asian elephants reside. In Thailand alone, not much more than 2,000
elephants survive in the forested areas that used to harbour as many as a
hundred thousand of elephants some hundred years ago. For over the last
decades, loss of habitat (where elephants live such as forests), hunting and
poaching appear to have been a crucial factor that has contributed to the
dramatic decline of wild elephants in Thailand. Put it simply, Thailand is
currently a home to a mere some 5,000 to 6,000 elephants, including both
domestic and wild ones.
Wild elephants are currently found in the forested
areas throughout the country in which the largest population of elephants is in
the western forest complex in the west of Thailand. The complex, comprising 17
protected areas in six western provinces, of which Kanchanaburi contains most
conservation areas (5 national parks and 2 wildlife sanctuaries), is thought to
have harboured some 600 wild elephants. The other two large populations of
elephants are also found in Khao Yai and Kaeng Krachan national parks where
some 200 and 300 of elephants have been dwelling. Apart from these, the
elephant populations in general are highly fragmented, distributing in a very
small number in the kingdom's conservation areas.
One of the critical threats to the depletion of
elephants in the past, nowadays capture for domestication no longer applies, at
least not to the same extent, because 4WD vehicles and pick-up trucks have
undermined the value of domesticated elephants. In Thailand, the 1989 logging
ban has reduced the amount of work available to them and has caused the
unemployment among those elephants that used to get involved in logging
operation. Hunting for ivory is also less common, especially in Thailand,
simply because most wild tuskers have already been killed, but when it does
happen, its impact is significant.
Overall in Thailand today, there are probably at least three
main reasons for the continuing decline of wild elephants:
1) Habitat Loss: bit by bit, people from all walks of life continue to take over
chunks of the elephants' homeland - often for subsistence agriculture but also
for agribusiness, logging operation, dams, resorts and luxury homes.
2) Crop-raiding: this is becoming more common where farmers have occupied land
that was used for centuries by elephants. Now when the elephants go there, they
feed on the edible crops and sometimes get killed or injured by angry farmers
whose crops are destroyed.
3) The baby trade: this is probably the nastiest threat of all because it
causes so much suffering. Some elephant camps and hotels like to keep baby
elephants to entertain their visitors. The cheapest way to get a baby elephant
is to steal it from the wild. This usually involves killing the mother so that
the baby is frightened, confused and easy to catch.
An elephant's natural
way-of-life
In the wild, baby elephants live with their mothers in the
family herd until they are well into their teens. On reaching puberty, young
males are made to leave the herd and join other males in bachelor groups.But
female never leave their matriarchal herd (the herd that is headed by female
members). Therefore to take young elephants from their family herd and to keep
female elephants on their own is emotional and psychological cruelty because it
is unnatural. In captivity, domestic elephants often form strong attachments to
each other, forming surrogate family, although some elephants are so
traumatised by their experience that they become social misfits and are often
dangerous.
What can we do to help?
As a tour operator that pursues sustainable tourism in Thailand,
what we can simply do at this stage is perhaps giving tourists accurate
information concerning the status of Asian elephants in a way that edutains (a
combination of educate and entertain) them to make them aware of the conditions
the elephants have been encountering. For example, it is unnatural for baby
elephant to stay separately from its mother, unless the mother got killed. If
one is seen staying alone at any sort of place, it may be suspended of being
captured from the wild. If visitors are informed about this, they may not want
to support those who own and use this elephant for their own sake. In so doing,
we are to ensure that we do not support all forms of illegal activities, such
as capturing baby elephants from the wild and trade in ivory. Or they would
become extinct in the next few decades as predicted if we let all the threats
facing the elephants continue to go as it happens today.