ASIAN ELEPHANTS ARE NOW BEING KILLED FOR THEIR SKIN

A lawless zone in northeastern Myanmar has cornered the market in a gruesome good: elephant skin jewellery.

The smell was ghastly and the sight even worse. Twenty-five elephants lay dead in a riverbed in the Ayeyawady (Irrawaddy) delta in southwestern Myanmar. “The stench is what led villagers to the bodies in the first place,” says Aung Myo Chit, the Smithsonian Institution’s Myanmar country coordinator, who also leads a local NGO, Growth for Prosperity, that helps rural residents avoid deadly conflicts with elephants.

It was the trust Aung Myo Chit’s outreach workers had earned that led villagers of Nga Pu Taw Township to reveal the dead elephants. Ordinarily, local people avoid reporting poaching to the authorities for fear they’ll be blamed.

By the time Aung Myo Chit’s filmmaker colleague Klaus Reisinger got there in early May, the giant carcasses had deteriorated badly. “Their bellies were bloated,” Reisinger recalls with a shudder.

Captive elephants are often used to drag carcasses of elephants slain for their ivory out of riverbeds where they’re commonly found. But that wasn’t possible this time. The skin had been stripped from the bodies, leaving them to tear apart if moved. So staff with the Myanmar Forest Department who came to investigate burned them in place to prevent their contaminating the downstream water supply.

Such spectacles are familiar on African savannas, where elephants are more numerous and poachers have stalked their ivory for decades. Not so in the thick forests of Myanmar, where the country’s remaining 1,200 to 1,400 endangered wild elephants are elusive and only the males (and not all males) have tusks.

But this and other, smaller recent slaughters in the Ayeyawady delta were not ivory raids. Poachers had killed males, tuskless females, and calves alike in pursuit of a different prize: their skins.

Using elephant skin and other body parts is nothing new in Southeast Asia. In Myanmar and elsewhere—particularly in tribal areas—the skin is dried, ground, mixed with oils, and applied to treat eczema and other skin conditions.

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Wild elephants wander near forest, ‘hiding from poachers’

Ten wild elephants are wandering in the forest by a highway and the authorities are protecting them from poachers.

The elephants near the Pathein-Mawtin highway in Ayeyawady Region are thought to be fleeing from poachers.

Htun Lin, administrator of Ngayokekaung Township, said: “Residents informed us of 10 elephants wandering in the forest near the highway. We took the photos of the elephants and then deployed a patrol.”

He added that the elephants did not harm the residents
.
“I think they came near the people to hide from poachers who usually operate in deep forests. We joined forces with members of an elephant conservation group and patrolled a mile perimeter. This is the first time I’ve seen wild elephants approach that close to human settlements.”

“Voices for Momos”, a group of elephant protectors, told a media conference on November 1 that between January and August at least 30 wild elephants were slaughtered for their ivory and skin.
The country was left with only 1,400 to 2,000 wild elephants, they added.

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Terrifying new elephant poaching epidemic to meet demand for ‘health’ jewellery made from their skin

Lying slaughtered in a forest ­clearing, its skin half-peeled, the elephant is one of 20 found dead the same day, many of them mothers and calves, all killed by poisoned dart.

But these animals were not butchered for their precious ivory tusks; they were killed for their thick, grey hide.

It is hacked off while their bodies are still warm. The rest of the beast is left to rot.

Just last week Environment Secretary Michael Gove announced plans to ban all ivory sales in the UK, in an attempt to help save elephants across the globe.

But the Mirror has learned that record numbers of Asian elephants face a terrifying new poaching epidemic – for a sick trend of jewellery made from their skin.

Monica Wrobel, head of conservation at wildlife charity Elephant Family, said: “These elephants were killed to order. The herd were tracked, slaughtered, and every bit of skin taken.”

The skin is polished and made into blood-red beads, which are sold as bracelets and necklaces at up to £75 each. Traders claim they can ward off illness.

Demand for the illegal jewellery is already so high in China that dealers are demanding more elephant skin from smugglers.

Last year, rangers found more than 60 elephants butchered for skin in Myan­mar, formerly Burma – now the epicentre of this poaching epidemic.

This year has been worse. Investigators seized 66 trunks in a single haul. Two herds were slaughtered, with a further six skinned elephants found in six weeks in the summer.

And if demand for beads ­continues to grow at this rate, these already endangered ­animals could be poached to the brink of extinction within two years.

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Suspect shot in elephant poacher bust

The body of a wild elephant killed in Ayeyawady Region.

A suspected elephant poacher was shot while resisting arrest during a police bust on August 13 in Thabaung Township, Ayeyawady Region.

Suspect Cho Tin, a 55-year-old resident of Ayeywady Region, was wounded on his right thigh and is now being treated at the Pathein General Hospital. Two other suspects who were with Chi Tin at the time of the attempted arrest are on the loose, according to police.

Police Captain Myo Lwin of Thabaung Township said: “We’ve heard about elephant poachers in this region. After spotting a slaughtered elephant, we continued looking for suspects and found them in the middle of the forest. One suspect was aiming his gun at us, so we had to shoot him. The wound was not critical.”

The police also seized two guns, four small tusks and other remains of an elephant.

Soe Tint, chief of the Thabaung Township forestry department, said: “The dead elephant we found was huge. So I assume the poachers are working in large numbers.”

The suspect will face charges for hunting wildlife and carrying weapons.

Police, army and forest guards are carrying out operations against elephant poachers in Thabaung, Ngaputaw and Pathein townships.

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