World Elephant Day; take a look at what nature wants to say!

he largest of all land beasts, elephants are thundering, trumpeting six-tonne monuments to the wonder of evolution. From the tip of that distinctive trunk with its massive muscles; to their outsize ears that flap the heat away; to the complex matriarchal societies and the mourning of their dead; to the points of their ivory tusks, designed to defend, but ultimately the cause of their ruin. 

There has never been a more dangerous time to be an elephant. Not during the industrial pillaging of the colonial era, nor the chaotic African and Asian independence movements that sparkled a 1970s poaching boom, has an elephant been more likely to fall to a gun.

Efforts to protect Asian elephants focus immense pressure on land and habitat. Poaching exists on the continent, but it is a lesser threat compared to the destruction of their homes. Unlike their African cousins only Asian elephants have tusks. Elephant protection relies on  the defense of reserve land from legal and illegal encroachment, logging, roads, and other developments.     

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World elephant day was started on August 12, 2020 to draw attention to the plight if Asian and African elephants. The largest mammal on land is now threatened with extinction. Destruction of habitats , poaching for ivory, human exploitation and encroachment threaten the lives of elephants. In our country, there are many jungles where train collisions and electric shocks around farms cause shock and death.

The recent incident of a pregnant elephant in forest being given firecrackers in a pineapple and breaking her mouth and not being able to eat it is an unforgettable incident in the minds of every animal lover. Many wilder beasts die from serious health problems due to eating plastic waste dumped in the forest.

There is also an elephant orphanage set up in the cause of time. The elephant orphanage is located in the village of Pinnawala in the Kegalle district of Sri Lanka. The elephant sanctuary is located on a 25 acre coconut grove on the banks of the Maha Oya River. It was established in 1975 by the wildlife conservation department of Sri Lanka. The elephants have a natural habitat here. 

For thousands of years ivory has been prized and elephants have been killed for it. The Egyptian pharaoh was laid to rest around 1323BC on a headrest of ivory, while in nearby Syria elephants were more or less wiped out for the ivory. The inventions of guns increased the pressure. The 19th century brought a fashion for big game hunting among the colonialists, which wiped out herds across the continent of Africa. Some experts see the brutal killings of elephants not a a battle for commodity, but for land. As the human population booms, so does the demand for space.

Around 20,000 African elephants were killed last year for their tusks, more than they were born. Chinese wealth is financing a hunger for ivory that threatens to bring an end to wild elephants within our lifetime.