Myanmar’s wild elephants facing ‘crisis’
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MYANMAR’S wild elephants are being poached in record numbers with at least 20 killed this year due to surging demand for their hide, WWF said yesterday, warning the species is facing a “crisis.”
Hunters are increasingly targeting mothers and calves, using poisoned arrows to inflict a slow and agonising death before stripping them of their skin, the wildlife group said.
Global wildlife law enforcement specialist Rohit Singh said poaching at two sites in Myanmar — Bago Yoma and the Irrawaddy Delta, both in the south — had reached crisis point.
“If the current trend continues then you’re going to lose the wild elephant population (in these areas) in the next one to two years.”
Elephant skin has become one of the latest animal products to be touted by some as having medical properties, although there is no scientific support for those claims.
WWF estimates there are 1,400-2,000 elephants roaming wild in Myanmar. The country is thought to have the second-largest population of the endangered animal in Southeast Asia after Thailand.
But their numbers have dwindled as Myanmar has emerged as a key hub in the estimated US$20 billion a year global wildlife trafficking trade.
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