Elephants vs Humans: Two Wars, One Battle

In my last post, i highlighted the many things that an elephant is and how close it comes to being 'human'. However, seeing as humans are elephants primary predators, where does this need to hunt them down come from?

These are among the many questions that conservationists have tried to answer for a long time. Is it greed that drives a man to search for wealth and riches even if it means doing away with another living thing? Is this battle any different than that which happens everyday in Iraq? Allow me to go biblical here, but is the heart of a man so wicked it will kill another to get ahead? Isn't this what's happening to these animals?

Now that i've posed enough questions for you to ponder about. Let me give you a few facts on just how real this battle is. As the World 'celebrated' World Elephants Day in August last year, these creatures had little to celebrate. This is why:

1. Elephant numbers dropped by 62% in the last decade.
2. Approximately 100 elephants are killed every day in Africa by poachers for ivory, meat and body parts.
3. The rising 'need' for ivory in the Asian markets has caused the death of tens of thousands of African elephants.
4. The price for ivory in China tripled between 2010 and 2014, driving poachers to do more active killing.
5.  Both female and male elephants are killed for their tusks therefore leaving behind a large number of orphaned calves and destabilising their societies. Their is however, a bigger decline in adult male elephants.

There are two different wars going on between elephants and humans. These wars however all have one purpose, that is the battle for power and control.The war that results in poaching is very well documented as it involves instant death statistics. However, the other war, the war for space though not as mentioned, has caused a bigger conflict. Humans are increasing in number everyday, and to sustain such a population means encroachment on wildlife habitats to turn them into farmlands and other developments. And because elephants are accustomed to living in vast lands, they are the worst hit by this problem.

The encounter between African elephants and humans is a little different between that of their Asian cousins. Asian elephants have been domesticated for thousands of years and most of them have come to rely on humans whilst African elephants who have roamed free all through have only come into contact with humans as a result of habitat encroachment.This however has not lessened the blow for the Asian species for they too have been adversely affected.

No matter the circumstances, the conflict between elephants and humans is a battle that is causing the rising depletion of one of the most intelligent and magnificent creatures ever created. There's no time to waste, we must act fast to save them. Will you join me and many others in the battle front?