World Elephant Day: Celebrating Gentle Giants And Advocating For Their Future

World Elephant Day was founded in 2012 by Canadian Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand, under the direction of HM Queen Sirikit. Its purpose is to bring people and organisations together globally to address the threats that elephants face.

Hyderabad: The World Elephant Day is celebrated globally on August 12. The Elephant Reintroduction Foundation in Thailand and Canadian filmmaker Patricia Sims founded World Elephant Day in 2011, which was observed for the first time on August 12, 2012.

Star Trek icon and movie star William Shatner, who narrated the fascinating 30-minute documentary Return to the Forest about the reintroduction of captive Asian elephants to the wild, generously supported the initiative. The original World Elephant Day was created to raise awareness of the predicament facing these magnificent animals among people and cultures around the globe.

Significance of World Elephant Day

The purpose of this day is to bring people and organisations together globally to address the threats that elephants face. Its inclusive vision encourages cooperation across boundaries and ideologies by allowing different groups and individuals to start campaigns under its auspices. This initiative gives everyone a voice on a global scale, enabling citizens, legislators, policymakers, and governments to create and support conservation strategies that will safeguard the future of elephants, other animals, and their habitats.

History of World Elephant Day

World Elephant Day was founded in 2012 by Canadian Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand, under the direction of HM Queen Sirikit. Since then, Patricia Sims has been in charge of this project. World Elephant Day has impacted the lives of countless people worldwide by working with 100 elephant conservation organisations worldwide. The large turnout on this day demonstrates people's genuine concern and commitment to supporting elephant conservation.

Elephants are hunted for ivory

Despite growing awareness of the true cost of ivory, it’s estimated that poachers still kill approximately 20,000 elephants every year for their tusks. This level of killing may even be changing elephant genetics. Elephants in the wild are increasingly born with smaller tusks or even tuskless. This is at least partly because individuals with larger tusks are removed from the gene pool by poachers.

Types of Elephants World Wise

African Bush Elephant:The African bush elephant is the largest land mammal in the world and the largest of the three elephant species. Adults reach up to 24 feet in length and 13 feet in height and weigh up to 11 tons. As herbivores, they spend much of their days foraging and eating grass, leaves, bark, fruit, and a variety of foliage. They need to eat about 350 pounds of vegetation every day.

African Forest elephant: The African forest elephant, which can weigh up to 2,700 kg and grow to a height of 2.5 m, is the smallest and darkest species of elephant. Its tusks are thinner and straighter, its ears are rounder and smaller, and its trunk is shorter and straighter. It is found in Central and West African forests that are tropical or subtropical. With an estimated population of 100,000, it is the most elusive and endangered species of elephant.

Sri Lankan Elephant: The Sri Lankan subspecies is the largest and also the darkest of the Asian elephants, with patches of depigmentation—areas with no skin colour—on its ears, face, trunk and belly. Once found throughout the tear-shaped island at the bottom of India’s southern tip, these elephants are now being pushed into smaller areas as development activities clear forests and disrupt their ancient migratory routes.

Indian Elephant: Indian elephants may spend up to 19 hours a day feeding and they can produce about 220 pounds of dung per day while wandering over an area that can cover up to 125 square miles. This helps to disperse germinating seeds. They feed mainly on grasses, but large amounts of tree bark, roots, leaves and small stems are also eaten. Cultivated crops such as bananas, rice and sugarcane are favoured foods as well. Since they need to drink at least once a day, these elephants are always close to a source of fresh water.

Asian elephant:With a maximum weight of 5,000 kg and a maximum height of 3.5 m, the Asian elephant is the second largest and heaviest of all elephant species. Its tusks are less curved, its ears are smaller, and its trunk is shorter and has a single finger-like projection. It inhabits a variety of Asian habitats, including marshes and grasslands. Its estimated population of 50,000 makes it the most fragmented and threatened of all elephant species.

Sumatran Elephant: Sumatran elephants feed on a variety of plants and deposit seeds wherever they go, contributing to a healthy forest ecosystem. They also share their lush forest habitat with several other endangered species, such as the Sumatran rhino, tiger, and orangutan, and countless other species that all benefit from an elephant population that thrives in a healthy habitat.

Bornean Elephant:The smallest Asian elephant subspecies, Bornean elephants are distinctly smaller than their mainland cousins. They have long tails that sometimes touch the ground, relatively large ears, and straighter tusks. While Borneo elephants are smaller in size than their African counterparts, at 8.2-9.8 feet tall, the Bornean elephant is the largest mammal on the island.

Pygmy Elephant: The smallest Asian elephant subspecies, Bornean elephants are distinctly smaller than their mainland cousins. They have long tails that sometimes touch the ground, relatively large ears, and straighter tusks. While Borneo elephants are smaller in size than their African counterparts, at 8.2-9.8 feet tall, the Bornean elephant is the largest mammal on the island.

What do they eat?

Elephants are herbivores, and they can eat 150-170 kg of vegetation on a single day. They usually have small plants, grasses, bushes, tree barks, twigs, fruits, and roots, spending 16-18 hours a day eating. However, major feeding sessions occur in the morning, afternoon, and night. Their favourite source of food is tree bark, which consists of calcium and roughage that helps in digesting their food.

Elephant Reserves In India

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in coordination with the State Forest Departments, have ground-validated 150 elephant corridors across 15 elephant range states in the country and informed the State Governments/UT Administrations to take necessary steps to protect and conserve the elephant corridors. Moreover, critical elephant habitats are notified as ‘Elephant Reserves’ for focus and synergy in elephant conservation and to reduce conflict.

So far 33 Elephant Reserves have been established in 14 major elephant states. These Elephant Reserves overlap with Tiger Reserves, Wildlife Sanctuaries and Reserved Forests which are protected under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, Indian Forest Act, 1927 and other local State Acts.

According to government data, human-elephant conflicts have caused 2,853 human deaths over the last five years, with a five-year high of 628 fatalities in 2023.

Few Incidents Involving Elephants In India

A female elephant died after being struck by lightning in the Baresadh area of ​​Palamu Tiger Reserve. The female elephant was accompanied by a baby elephant, who survived the lightning strike safely. The officials of Palamu Tiger Reserve noticed the baby elephant, rescued it and brought it to the ​​Betla National Park.

This baby elephant was named Rakhi. The officials gave the responsibility of taking care of Rakhi to a mahout, Satyendra Singh. Taking care of Rakhi was no less than a challenge. But Satyendra Singh did it with great determination. Wherever Satyendra Singh went, Rakhi followed him and stayed with him. Satyendra Singh said that initially there was a lot of difficulty in raising her, but later she became normal.

"Initially, raising Rakhi was a big challenge. Rakhi was given roti(India bread)and milk daily. About 11 litres of milk was prepared from powder and given with roti. Slowly with time, Rakhi became normal and today she is living in Betla National Park," Satyendra Singh said.

"Rakhi has been raised very carefully by the department. Today she is present in Betla National Park and is a center of attraction for tourists. Rakhi's mother died due to lightning, after which she was brought to Betla National Park," said Forester Santosh Kumar Singh.

Meanwhile, World Elephant Day has been celebrated every year since 2012 for the conservation and promotion of elephants. Corbett National Park is working well in this campaign. As a result, the number of elephants is continuously increasing in Corbett National Park. Awareness programs are being conducted for the conservation of elephants in different areas of Corbett Tiger Reserve of Uttarakhand.

Information about elephant conservation was given to school children at Bijrani Gate of Corbett National Park. Children were informed that there were 979 elephants in Corbett National Park in 2010. In 2015, this number increased to 1,035. In the 2020 census, the number of elephants in Corbett Park increased to more than 1,220.