Across Asia, elephants are being hunted to extinction for their skin.
“The trade is continuing and spreading geographically”
Belinda Stewart-Cox, Elephant FamilyOur report noted elephants were being found in forested areas of Myanmar, mostly near water bodies, with their skins ripped apart from their bodies.
Further investigation revealed the reasons. The elephants had been killed not with firearms (because of heavy penalties on gun ownership in Myanmar) but by poachers using arrows and spears tipped with poison.
When hit by the arrows, poison spreads inside the wounded elephant and it seeks out water. They die beside the water in a painful and excruciating death, with the body in turn polluting the water supply for residents.
Our intention is not to apportion blame but to turn the spotlight onto the escalation of this crime and to call for the collaboration of governments, civil society and the wider public to tackle the issue and protect the survival of Asia’s elephants.
Elephants killed for their skin
In 2016, 421kg of elephant skin was seized in Southwest China. The haul, along with multiple sightings of elephant skin in Myanmar, confirmed a devastating trade.
Cut into pieces the skin is sold on the black market, ground down to powder and promoted as a medicinal cure or, as Elephant Family investigations discovered, turned into beads for jewellery. Asian elephants are struggling to survive, they have lost 90% of their habitat in the last century – now they are being ripped from the wild for the tourist trade and their skin.
Our new report published in September, 2019 – is as an update of our 2018 reports covering an 18-month period, during which we continued to monitor online marketplaces, visited key locations known for illegal wildlife trade, and engaged with national and international policy-makers. For clarity and perspective, we present our latest findings in the context of our previous research.
Our intention is not to apportion blame but to turn the spotlight onto the escalation of this crime and to call for the collaboration of governments, civil society and the wider public to tackle the issue before it threatens the survival of Asia’s elephants.
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