Why elephants are captured (#2)

[Guest guest]

>if elephants are in such abundance, why do we still have Sonepur

>melas happening in the country?

 

 

The answer is really the same as the reason why street dogs

continue to be captured, throughout the world, even in places where

there is no legal and societally accepted economic use for them.

 

The motivating force is not the value of possessing the

elephant, but rather the value of possessing land which is not used

or occupied by elephants. Elephants, like street dogs, are removed

as a perceived nuisance or impediment to human activity.

 

After that, people try to figure out what to do with them

that might bring additional returns.

 

 

>Why are still elephants being captured in the country and bought

>mostly by the same people when they already have elephants in

>abundance.

 

One big reason is clandestine ivory trafficking and

speculation in ivory futures. To acquire live elephants is one of

the few legal ways to acquire ivory. To be known to possess a large

number of elephants is to be able to quietly dispose of some and

covertly sell ivory without anyone realizing that the elephants who

are coming and going are not always the same elephants.

 

Esmond Martin and Daniel Stiles several years ago documented

the extent of the covert ivory trade in India and nearby nations in

The Ivory Markets of East Asia, published by Save the Elephants

(POB 54667, Nairobi, Kenya), 2003.

 

They have published several other volumes documenting the

extent of the covert ivory trade in other parts of the world.

 

 

 

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Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

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