Laos: Saving the elephants of Laos

When French explorer Henri Mouhot passed through Laos in 1861, he traveled on the back of an elephant. Then, every village had elephants, some as many as 100. Without one, he declared, “no communication would be possible” along rugged roads that he dubbed the “devil’s pathways”.

A century and a half later, the colossus is in peril. Across much of Asia, shrinking forests ringed by human settlements support fewer wild elephants, while working animals are being rapidly replaced by trucks and tractors. Once prized in Thailand as royal cavalry, elephants and their mahouts are reduced to begging in Bangkok. Wild pachyderms are at the mercy of poachers who covet their ivory tusks.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, as few as 25,600 Asian elephants live in the wild, primarily in India with less than 1000 wild elephants left in Laos. What was once the 'Kingdom of a million elephants' now has a serious problem with its dwindling elephant population.

A Laos based NGO called ElefantAsia set-up by two frenchmen is now working to save this beloved animal.

A full text by Simon Montlake accompanies these pictures.