Stranded baby elephants rescued by Thai rangers

Bangkok, Mar 30 Six baby elephants separated from their parents and trapped in a muddy pit for days have been rescued by park rangers in rural Thailand, officials said Saturday.

Patrolling rangers chanced upon the struggling herd in a national park east of Bangkok on Wednesday afternoon, park superintendent Prawatsart Chantheap told AFP.

Once the rangers realised the calves, aged between one and four years old, could not climb out of the dirty watering hole, some left the forest to bring back digging tools while others stayed overnight to keep watch over the frightened creatures.

"Our team arrived with hoes (on Thursday morning)... and we began to dig around the rim (of the mud pit) to make it less steep," he said.

After three hours of digging to build a makeshift ramp, the mud-covered babies managed to stumble out of the pit one-by-one as the rangers cheered them on.

"Go, go, follow each other!" the rangers yelled in a video recorded by the national parks department. "Go, children, go!" Prawatsart said the rangers had observed a herd of 30 adult elephants nearby and believed the young calves must have been separated from them.

"We believe they were stuck there for at least two days because after they got out their legs were weak," he said.

Wild elephants are Thailand's national animal and live in the wild in parts of the country but their numbers have dwindled to about 2,700 from a peak of over 100,000 in 1850.

Deforestation and habitat loss has brought them in closer contact with humans in recent decades, and they often clash with villagers and farmers.

Elephants are also poached or domesticated for entertainment and tourism. AMS AMS

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DRI seizes nearly 17 kg elephant tusk in West Bengal

Siliguri (West Bengal), Jan 2 The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized nearly 17 kg elephant tusk near here, according to an official statement issued Wednesday.

The recovery was done from a Kolkata-bound vehicle at Ghoshpukur in the outskirts of Siliguri.

The tusks in four pieces were being secretly transported in the vehicle, which was loaded with a consignment of black tea, from Guwahati, it said.

On interrogation, the driver of the impugned vehicle admitted that the elephant tusks were handed to him in Baihata Chariali town for transport to Kolkata, the statement said.

"Preliminary investigation has revealed that the tusks were extracted from poached elephants in the forested areas of Assam and were being carried to Kolkata for ultimate export to south east Asian countries via Bangladesh," it said.

Consequently, the tusks, valued at about Rs 1.69 crore in the international market, were seized, the statement added.

The DRI has detected a series of cases involving trafficking of elephants tusks in the past.

In four such cases, a total of 38.6 kg of elephant tusks were seized by the DRI last year. Eight people were arrested in these cases. AKV IJT

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Elephant tusk recovered

SILIGURI
2 Jan 2019

Officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence recovered 16.962 kgs of tusks today afternoon from Ghoshpukur in the outskirts of Siliguri. The ivory was found in a Tata container truck bearing Registration number WB-23E-5533 bound for Kolkata from Guwahati, Assam.

The elephant tusks in four cut pieces were being secretly transported in the under a consignment of black tea. On interrogation, the driver of the impugned vehicle confessed that the elephant tusks were handed over to him at Baihata Chariali by one person from Guwahati for transporting it to Kolkata.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the tusks were extracted from poached elephants in the forested areas of Assam and were being carried to Kolkata for export to South East Asian countries via Bangladesh.

Indian (Asian) Elephant (Elephas maximus) is listed in Appendix I of the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and also listed under Sl no: 12B of Part I of Schedule I of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972. As per the ITC (HS) Classifications for Imports under Schedule I of the Import Policy of the Government of India, the import of wild animals (including their parts and products) as defined in the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 is prohibited.

Sections 48 and 49 of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 prohibit trade or commerce in Wild Animals or Animal Articles or Trophies. Further, illegal export or import of wild life automatically becomes a violation of the Customs Act by virtue of Section 111(d) of the Customs Act. Such offenses are punishable under Section 135 of the Customs Act as also under Section 51 of the WPA.

Consequently, the elephant tusks valued at about Rs.1.69 crore in the international market have been seized under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 read with the Wildlife Protection Act.

DRI has detected a series of cases involving trafficking of elephants tusks. In four such cases in the past, a total of 38.604 kgs of Elephant Tusks have been seized by DRI this year. Eight persons have been arrested in these cases. (EOIC)

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5 Elephants Circled Thai Man On Motorcycle, Trampled Him To Death

Bangkok:

A Thai man was trampled to death by five wild elephants near a rubber plantation Friday, police said, the latest deadly encounter in a country where pachyderms are both venerated and feared.

Masaree Samae, 40, was killed in the early morning attack in southern Yala province, home to many of Thailand's sprawling rubber plantations.

"The victim was riding his motorbike on the way to tap rubber... and was circled by five elephants," police captain Sathit Woonchoom told AFP by phone.

"I conducted the autopsy with a doctor and found wounds on his back and head," Sathit said.

The officer said he heard elephants rustling in the bushes near when he arrived at the scene to investigate.

Thailand's wild elephant population has dwindled to about 2,700 from a peak of 100,000 in 1850, according to the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre.

Deforestation and habitat loss has brought them in closer contact with humans in recent decades, and they often clash with villagers -- sometimes killing them.

Villagers have also killed the elephants despite them being a protected species.

Elephants are also poached or domesticated for entertainment and tourism.

Thailand has come under fire for its notorious elephant tourism trade and the threatened animals are widely used in circus performances, to give rides, or in films and on TV.

In November last year a five-tonne elephant that has starred in feature films and commercials crushed its owner to death in Chiang Mai.

The animal was in musth -- a state of high aggression among males accompanied by a hormonal surge -- when the accident happened, zoo officials said.

Two wild elephants were killed earlier this year by a pineapple farm worker who set up an electric fence set up to kill the creatures.

He was charged with poaching but quickly released on bail.


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Ministers consider ban on hippo and mammoth ivory

Hippos, walruses and narwhals could be protected by a ban on the sale of items made from their tusks (writes Ben Webster). The government announced yesterday that it was considering extending the proposed ban on elephant ivory to cover other species, including sperm whales, killer whales and warthogs. It could cover the tusks of mammoths, which are similar to elephant ivory.

Ministers believe that their continued sale could fuel demand and lead to more elephants being poached. There are fears that the clampdown on elephant ivory has increased trade in ivory from other species, particulary hippos, which have declined by 12 per cent to about 100,000 in the past decade.


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NGO petitions Bihar wildlife warden for action against cruelty towards captive elephants

New Delhi, Mar 30 (PTI) To ensure that captive elephants in Bihar were not ill-treated by their owners to make them work harder, as was done to a 30-year-old pachyderm that died recently due to the cruel treatment, a Delhi-based NGO has petitioned the wildlife warden of that state to take strict action against those who engage in such activities.

The NGO, Wildlife SOS, claimed that the 30-year-old female elephant, Laxmi, was beaten and starved to death by its owners.

The NGO, which is engaged in rescuing and rehabilitating wild animals in distress, said the incident at Motihari in Bihar highlighted the harsh reality of cruelty and neglect that privately-owned captive elephants suffered.

It further claimed that Laxmi was poached from the wild as a calf and chained and tortured for years, adding that the animal was later sold to the elephant traffickers.

"Years of abuse and malnourishment had left the animals body fragile and severely weakened and its bones brittle and compromised. The skin had sagged over its bony frame and the legs caved inward, no longer able to support the weight of its body," the NGO said.

It added that despite the elephant being in such a weak condition, its owners had allegedly attacked it with sharp spears, bull-hooks and sticks to force it to work. Unable to bear the suffering, the animal had collapsed and died, the NGO said.

The owners of the animal had fled the scene before forest department officials, who were informed by the NGO, reached the spot. PTI HMP RC RC

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Starved elephant beaten by her captors in shocking footage to emerge after its death

A distressing video has emerged of a dishevelled elephant being beaten and prodded with sharp objects shortly before she died.

Laxmi, a 30-year-old elephant, was beaten and starved to death by her cruel owners in India.

She was poached from the wild as a calf and separated from her mother and herd.

The endangered animal was sold into the illegal elephant trafficking industry and subjected to years of abuse and malnourishment that left her body fragile and weakened.

The severely underweight creature was unable to support the weight of her body with her bony frame.

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