Burma Elephant Report

[Guest guest]

Burma Elephant Report

 

EleAid trustee Charles Begley has had a long interest in the status

and circumstances of elephants in Burma.

 

Burma has a long history of elephants. For over a thousand years the

people of Burma have used domesticated elephants for a variety of

purposes including transportation, construction, agriculture and

war. Elephants, particularly the rare white elephants were greatly

revered and they were am important part of national life. During the

colonial period the British continued to use elephants on an

industrial scale to extract teak and other tropical hardwoods from

the jungle. This practice continues today and Burma maintains the

largest number of domesticated elephants in Asia.

 

Burma also has the second largest number of wild elephants and the

largest remaining areas of natural elephant habitat and for these

reason the country will probably play a key role if wild elephants

are going to survive in Asia in the future.

 

In March 2006 Charles was able to visit Burma and supplement his

research with a fieldtrip. His report details his findings and

provides an insight into the situation of Burma's elephants today.

 

 

 

The report is in pdf format which is readable on most computers and

can be downloaded here

 

http://eleaid.com/index.php?page=burmaelephantreport