‘The Gathering’ Greatest Elephant Show Begins
July 31st, 2012
Come August and the world’s 6th greatest wildlife spectacle, ‘The Gathering’ takes place at Minneriya in the north central province of Sri Lanka. The island nation, boasting of having close to 5,000 wild elephants, becomes the hot spot for elephant watchers all over the world during the months of August and September. ‘The Gathering’, taking Read more…
Devotees pay homage to temple elephant
July 30th, 2012
MADURAI: Hundreds of devotees paid homage to ‘Avvai’, the 54-year-old elephant of Tiruparankunram Murugan temple in Madurai. In a poignant gesture, devotees stayed awake in the temple throughout the night and participated in the funeral procession of the elephant that served the temple for the past four decades. Avvai was brought to the Subramaniya Swamy Read more…
Surin man stomped by elephant
July 30th, 2012
A 50-year-old man was stomped to death by an elephant near the venue of a merit-making ceremony during which Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra offered alms to monks mounted on elephants in Muang district of Surin province on Monday morning, reports said. The attack occurred about 7.30am inside Wat Chumpolsuthawas, about 200 metres from where the Read more…
Plan for forest patrol on elephants
July 28th, 2012
Making use of the tamed/trained kumki elephants at the Kozhikamudhi elephant camp near Top Slip in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), officials have planned a patrolling of the forest areas on elephant in inaccessible and tough terrains. The camp of the ATR has nearly 18 kumki elephants and agile and healthy elephants would be deployed in Read more…
Protected animals seized at temple
July 24th, 2012
Authorities seized 47 protected animals, including crocodiles, at a Buddhist temple in Kanchanaburi province on Monday. About 100 police and officials attached to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation went to Wat Phothisat Banpot Nimit in Muang district this morning to inspect possession documents for protected wildlife and carcasses after authorities raided Read more…
Asia fuels record elephant, rhino killings: WWF
July 23rd, 2012
Manila, July 23, 2012 (AFP) – China, Vietnam and Thailand are among the worst offenders in fuelling a global black market that is seeing record numbers of elephants and rhinos killed in Africa, environment group WWF said on Monday. Releasing a report rating countries’ efforts at stopping the trade in endangered species, WWF said elephant Read more…
Thailand abetting illegal ivory trade
July 23rd, 2012
China, Vietnam and Thailand are among the worst offenders in fuelling a global black market that is seeing record numbers of elephants and rhinos killed in Africa, the environment group WWF said on Monday. “Tens of thousands of African elephants are being killed by poachers each year for their tusks, and China and Thailand are Read more…
Time to ban ivory for good?
July 23rd, 2012
BANGKOK, Thailand — Smuggling boxes of elephant tusks is not so different from smuggling bundles of cocaine. Both are procured for a pittance and sold abroad for a fortune. Both enrich transnational criminal networks; in ivory’s case, the commodity is acquired in the African savannah and sold primarily in China. Both send mules and middlemen Read more…
The evil secrets of Thailand’s elephant tourism
July 22nd, 2012
There are few things more adorable than a baby elephant. Little more than 3ft tall and naturally curious, they are the undisputed stars of the scores of elephant camps created in the forests of Thailand to offer tourists the opportunity to get close to the world’s largest land animals. For many of the 850,000 Britons Read more…
Elephant suffers head injury during transportation, dies
July 22nd, 2012
Kottayam: An elephant that suffered serious head injury while being transported in a truck died late last night after writhing in pain for hours at Kumarakom near Kottayam. The tusker, Soman, had his forehead dashed against the cabin of the truck in which it was being carried when the vehicle hit a speed-breaker. The wooden Read more…
