Asian elephants historically have a wide range throughout Asia and play a significant role in the culture and economy of the region. They are important religious symbols and have also been domesticated for logging and other manual labor. Today Asia’s forests are significantly smaller due to the dramatic increase in human development throughout the region. As Asia’s population continues to grow rapidly, the once-great forests that elephants roamed are now broken and scattered amongst emerging villages, towns and cities.
Elephants follow well-defined seasonal migration patterns that are passed down from generation to generation. When new farms arise along these paths, Asian elephants come in direct contact with humans, often with tragic results as farmers forced to defend their crops will shoot elephants upon sight. In addition to stumbling upon farms, some Asian elephants are actively seeking out rice fields and other commercial agriculture sites in search of food.
Given their need for large dietary requirements, today Asian elephants simply do not have enough open space to sustain themselves naturally and crop raids are common.
Poaching is also a serious issue for Asian elephants. Since only Asian males have tusks, they are often under-represented in herds due to targeted poaching for ivory. Without males available to breed, it is difficult for the herds to maintain their numbers.
As a result of these pressures, scientists estimate there may be as few as 35,000 Asian elephants left in the wild, though some reports indicate even this figure may be generous. With no stop to Asia’s human population growth or development in sight, the Asian elephant is a species under immense strain that faces an uncertain future.
