The 12th August of every year is celebrated as the World Elephant Day to create awareness on the need to conserve and preserve the elephants and their habitats.
The First World Elephant Day was celebrated on 12th August 2012.
Background:
The Idea to celebrate World Elephant Day was initiated by Sivaporn Dardarananda, Secretary General of Elephant Reintroduction Foundation and Canadian filmmakers Patricia Sims and Michael Clark in 2011 to focus global attention on the plight of Asian and African Elephants which were facing the threats of extinction.
Threats:
i.Poaching and Illegal trade of elephant ivory in black market.
ii.Loss of natural habitats which affects their feeding pastures.
iii.Human Elephant conflicts.
iv.Maltreatment in captivity.
Elephant Reintroduction Foundation:
The Elephant Reintroduction Foundation, a nonprofit organisation based in Thailand was established by the Royal initiative of the Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand in 2002.
The foundation manages around 3 forest sanctuaries in Thailand where more than 100 captive elephants were reintroduced into the wild natural habitats.
Mission:
To reintroduce captive elephants into the wild and restore the natural habitats of the elephants.
Aim:
- To promote the management of long term survival of elephants in Thailand and other elephant range states.
- To research and educate the general public about the Asian Elephants.
Events 2020:
i.CMS Vatavaran organised an Online film festival screening 9 documentaries on elephants by acclaimed wildlife and environmental filmmakers, which will be screened from 12th August 2020 to 13th August 2020.
ii.The Department of Zoology and Department of Genetics and Genomics, Karnataka Forest Department in association with University of Mysore organised a video, quiz and poster competitions.
iii.The Eco Club of Kaamadhenu Arts and Science College, Erode, Tamil Nadu organises a State Level Webinar on “Conservation of Elephants” over Facebook on 14th August 2020.
Note:
Patricia Sims and Michael Clark received the 2012 Humanitarian Award for their documentary “Return to the Forest” on the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation and its mission to save the elephants of Thailand, it was narrated by William Shatner.
Initivets to protect Elephants:
i.The Conservation on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) initiative – Monitoring the illegal killing of Elephants(MIKE) programmed is a site based system designed to monitor the illegal killing of elephants and to provide data to the range states to make management and enforcement decisions.
ii.CITES, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and TRAFFIC released Identification Guide for Ivory and Ivory Substitutes, a new guide to identify smuggled ivory and its artificial substitutes in trade.
Initiatives in India:
Beta Version of a portal called “Surakhsya” to support the management of conflicts on real time basis were launched in India.
About Elephant Reintroduction Foundation:
Chairman– Dr. Sumet Tantivejkul
Secretary General– Sivaporn Dardarananda
Headquarters– Bangkok, Thailand
About CITES:
Secretary-General– Ivonne Higuero
Headquarters– Geneva, Switzerland
