Sanctuary plan for Myanmar elephants in captivity to save them from conflict or performing for tourists
- Thousands of captive Myanmar elephants left redundant by a government clampdown on logging are being thrown a lifeline
- A new programme will relocate animals from areas prone to elephant-human conflict to safety elsewhere in the country
Not long ago, elephants hauling logs through the jungles of Myanmar – home to the largest captive population of Asian elephants – for the country’s thriving timber trade were a common sight.
However, in 2014 the government imposed a ban on the export of raw timber, allowing only high-end finished timber products to be sold abroad. Almost overnight, the nearly 3,000 elephants employed by government-run Myanmar Timber Enterprise, and their mahouts, were made redundant.
With no funds made available to care for the animals, many were forced to work for unethical tourism operators, put through cruel training to perform, or simply released into the wild.
“If nothing is done to provide financial support for these elephants, the government-owned elephants will be put back to work logging elsewhere, be cruelly trained for performance and live a life of begging, or released into the wild to fend for themselves,” says Dane Waters, The Elephant Project founder and president.
Surviving life in the wild is tough for domesticated elephants. Hunting of elephants is rife, with poachers targeting them for their tusks and skin which, when ground into a powder, is a key ingredient in traditional medicine. Many have also died at the hands of villagers after wreaking havoc in rural communities and tearing up farmland.