WORLD ELEPHANT DAY- AUGUST-12

WORLD ELEPHANT DAY- AUGUST-12

             World Elephant Day is an annual event on August 12, dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world’s elephants Since 2011, August 12 has been set aside as World Elephant Day. Supported by numerous conservation agencies, it’s a day to “spread awareness, share knowledge, and provide solutions for better care and management of both captive and wild elephants,” Predation of elephants has increased in recent years, with as many as 100,000 African elephants being killed between 2010 and 2012, according to an elephant researcher at Colorado State University. Nearly 60 percent of Tanzania’s elephant population has been wiped out in the past six years, the report indicated. Increased demand in Asia, where a single tusk can fetch up to $200,000, has fueled the increase in poaching.

               “World Elephant Day is a rallying call for people to support organizations that are working to stop the illegal poaching and trade of elephant ivory and other wildlife products, protect wild elephant habitat, and provide sanctuaries and alternative habitats for domesticated elephants to live freely,” Patricia Sims, co-founder of World Elephant Day, said in a news release. Sims is a documentary filmmaker who has worked on several projects related to elephant conservation including “Return to the Forest.”

               “Elephants are among the most fascinating creatures. What limits there are to their intelligence, we don’t know. What we do know is that they can communicate between each other thousands of miles which would then also mean that every elephant is linked to every other elephant in the world. Why the complexity unless there was a reason and that reason has to be intelligence,” Shatner said. “What a wonderful creature they must be.”

The goal of World Elephant Day is to create awareness around the urgent plight of African and Asian elephants, and to share knowledge and positive solutions for the better care and management of captive and wild elephants. Both African and Asian elephants face extinction, with African elephants being "Vulnerable" and Asian elephants being "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.

Prof. John Kurakar