A TALE OF TWO WOMEN AND EIGHT ELEPHANTS

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http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/how-two-women-stopped-eight-elephants/2006/0\

6/09/1149815316463.html

How two women stopped eight elephants

June 10, 2006

 

An Australian zoo official with a corn cob dinner for the elephants.

Photo: *AP*

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IT WAS a done deal, signed, sealed, but undelivered — at least as far as

eight Australia-bound elephants are concerned.

 

And now, unless they sprout wings, it may be some time before they take off.

 

On Monday, two women, one with a walking stick, rested their arms against

the front of the convoy of trucks ready to carry the elephants from their

quarantine station two hours west of Bangkok, to the waiting cargo plane at

Bangkok airport.

 

The tableau remained frozen for more than 24 hours until finally an order

came from the highest level of the Thai Government to unload the elephants.

 

It took one elephant activist, Soraida Salwala, and her friend Phinun

Chotirojseranee, of the Kanchanaburi environment group to stop the trucks

and derail an 18-month deal between the two governments.

 

The deal had been cleared by Australian courts and the Thai Senate, but has

become a great example of how in Thailand, inking the deal may only be the

first step.

 

The critical question is one of identification: were the elephants born in

captivity to two domesticated parents, or were they poached from the wild?

 

To meet the Convention in Trade in Endangered Species for export the

elephants must have been born in captivity.

 

All the Australia-bound elephants have identification papers, copies of

which were seen by *The Age*, but fake papers are so prevalent, activists

say, that they mean nothing.

 

An elephant does not have to be registered until it is eight years old, and

deaths do not have to be notified.

 

Initially there were nine in the Australian herd, but last year one male was

removed because of his " aggressive behaviour " .

 

Weeks earlier, Ms Salwala said, she showed a news conference that on its

identification papers the bull was listed as a female.

 

Of the remaining animals, at least five do not have the animal's parents

listed.

 

Thailand's Senate committee on elephant protection raised the identification

issue last year when it reviewed the Australian case.

 

" Our advice was the deal was all right but it needed to have DNA tests, "

said the committee chairwoman, acting Senator Pensak Chagsuchinda, who was

pleased with the level of treatment the elephants received from their

Australian mahouts. A letter requesting the tests was sent to the Thai zoo

association on August 9, last year, but nothing was done.

 

The timing has not helped. The attempted export of this " symbol of Thailand "

has coincided with a huge celebration of Thai nationhood.

 

The streets are awash with yellow for the 60th anniversary of the ascension

to the throne of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, marking his reign as the

longest-serving monarch in the world.

 

Also, the Thai Government is locked in political limbo, after the April 2

election results were declared void.

 

Sulak Sivarasksa, Thailand's best-known social critic, rang the Prime

Minister's office from Kanchanaburi on Tuesday afternoon to express his

concern.

 

" If the elephants are not released, I will not return home — I think it will

make headlines, " he told the Government.

 

Almost immediately, the release order came from the Minister for Natural

Resources.

 

Ms Salwala, founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant, estimates there are

2000 elephants left in the wild and another 2700 in captivity in Thailand —

down from 40,000 elephants 40 years ago.

 

She admits that her agenda is to keep all elephants in Thailand.

 

The Australians, keen to break the deadlock, said this week that they had

already provided blood samples for DNA testing.

 

But Dr Sumolya Kanchanapangkha, who studies Asian elephant DNA structure at

Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, and has been asked to carry out the

tests, said the work could take months.

 

And they would not be conclusive, because they could map only four of the 11

to 15 DNA markers needed to make a positive identification between parent

and calf.

 

So, how long will the enclosures at Taronga and Melbourne zoos have to wait?

The Ministry of Natural Resources said on Tuesday the elephant transfer

would still go ahead, but when was a moot point.