What are the problems facing Thailand’s Elephants?
Elephant’s today face ever increasing pressure from the world and one of nature’s most majestic and intelligent creatures is on the verge of extinction. We must stand up and take notice of their plight today. Only around 3000 elephants remain in Thailand and when comparing this figure to 100,000 elephants in 1900 you can understand why we are so concerned. In the whole of Southeast Asia there are between 25,000 and 30,000 individuals. Due to this fact the International Union for Conservation has classed the species as ‘Endangered’. Around 20 percent of the human populations live either in or near Asian Elephant habitat which brings constant problems. Reduction and fragmentation of the forest habitat is constricting elephants to small numbers that cannot survive in the long term. Plus this puts elephants in direct conflict with humans, resulting in destroyed crops and elephant attacks. This conflict has seriously affected many local peoples view of the elephant. In many cases the wrong
