Conflict betwen man and elephants on the rise in Odisha

The conflict between elephants and man is a matter of concern for Odisha because the population of elephants has gone up in the past two years as has the conflict between the two. According to statistics, 393 elephants have died in the state in the past five years and most of them have been victims of either poaching or electrocution by high-tension wires.
Hunters and wildlife smugglers were responsible for death of 28 elephants during this period, nine died of poisoning and 60 were killed in road and train accidents while electrocution claimed the lives of more than 50 elephants in the past five years.
This has been reported in telegraphidia.com dated 8 July 2017.

On the other hand, 300 people have been killed by the elephants in the same period and the animals have damaged more than 4000 houses and crops over nearly 70,000 acres. In the opinion of an environmentalist, the loss of natural habitat was the major factors responsible for the human-elephant conflict in the state. Disappearance and degradation of forest cover compels them to venture into the territory of humans in search of food and water.


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Incidents of elephant poaching in South Africa up 400% since start of the year

South Africa is seeing an increase in the number of elephant poaching incidents. It has zoomed up by nearly 400% since the start of the year while rhino poaching has dropped by 17% in the same period. This indicates that elephant poaching is taking over from rhino poaching.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 23 September 2016.

Officials maintain watch by helicopter over Kruger National searching for elephant carcasses and, trying to stop poachers who hide in the bush and often operate at night. Only 15% of the Kruger national park is open to tourists and the remaining is wild. That is where the poachers have a field day.
Helicopters are used to maintain aerial surveillance because it helped the ground teams in the poaching crackdown. They are assured with the knowledge that they are not alone, there's somebody above them looking after them. A forthcoming wildlife conference to be held in South Africa will discuss ways of saving rhinos and elephants.


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Population of African elephants drastically down due to loss of habitat and poaching

A study has revealed that the population of African elephants has reduced drastically due to not only poaching for their ivory but also due to loss of habitat. This has, in turn, raised questions about the failure to protect one of the world's largest mammals.
The study has shown that there are now only 352,271 savanna elephants in nearly all of sub-Saharan Africa. This is as per data furnished by Elephants Without Borders, a research organization that just completed an 18-country census.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 1 September 2016.

The study has found that between 2007 and 2014, the elephant population has declined by at least 30 per cent, or 144,000 elephants. The study, which was funded largely by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has also revealed that Tanzania's elephant population declined by 53 per cent between 2009 and 2015, from about 109,000 in 2009 to 51,000 in 2015.
The researchers had spend 10,000 hours in the air traveling across Africa in helicopters and bush planes and the National Geographic has called the study "the largest wildlife census in history". Incidentally, some of the countries like Angola had never before covered by any earlier survey.
One of the reasons for this decline with regard to savanna elephants is dramatic loss of habitat - their land was destroyed and their range "shrank from three million square miles in 1979 to just over one million square miles in 2007" - this is as per the World Wildlife Fund.
Poaching is another known threat. The animals are killed for their ivory and most of the ivory ends up in Asia, where it fetches as much as US$1000 per pound and is frequently used in unproven medicinal treatments. Kenya had set fire to 105 tonnes of ivory in an attempt to prove, in the words of President Uhuru Kenyatta, that "for us, ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants". The United States has also announced a near-total ban on the ivory trade.


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$100-million worth elephant tusks go up in flames in Kenya

President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya set on fire a huge pyre of elephant tusks worth $100-million to show to the world that his country is serious about ending the illegal trade in ivory which is threatening to push wild elephants to extinction.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 1 May 2016.

Heavily armed poachers, using military tactics, have wiped out tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of elephants across Africa. They are killed for their tusks which, then, enter an underground pipeline to Asia, especially China, where there is a huge demand for ivory. It is used to make eyeglass frames, combs, statuettes and other trinkets.
In the opinion of wildlife experts, the street price of a kilogram of ivory is around $1,000. And, Kenya set fire to 105 metric tons of ivory. It was a stockpile of confiscated and recovered tusks and was the most amount of ivory ever destroyed at one time - it represented 6,000 to 7,000 dead elephants.


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Terrorists in central Africa poach elephants from the air and saw off their tusks

#elephantpoaching #garamba #LRA #ivory #tusks Elephant poaching by terrorists in central Africa is assuming unimaginable proportions – reports in foxnews.com dated 3 February 2015 indicate that the extremist groups shoot the animals from helicopters and then use chainsaws to saw off their valuable tusks.
As per information, in the Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a total of 131 elephants were slaughtered since last April.
Poachers normally relied on “low technology,” and used to kill one or two elephants at a time. However, with the emergence of heavily armed groups like the Lord’s Resistance Army and Al Shabaab, right now the count is up to eight animals at a time. The tusks are then sold on the black market to be converted into luxury goods in places like China.
It seems the Lord’s Resistance Army, which is a vicious guerilla group, is the biggest offender. Elephant poaching has helped to breathe new life into the militant group. Ivory trafficked through Sudanese-held territory, apart from gold and diamonds, has become a major source of financing for this group.
As per rough estimates, nearly 100 elephants are killed across Central Africa every day for their ivory tusks. In 2012 around 35,000 elephants were believed to have been killed by poachers. As a result, the elephant population is on the decline – it has reduced more than 50 percent in the last 30 years.