Elephants speak out: a Letter to Humans

Let me introduce myself:

My name is Elephant. You can call me Jumbo or tusker if you like. We are the largest Mammals and are scattered throughout Sub-saharan Africa, South Asia and South-east Asia. We have several distinctive features, the most notable of which is a long trunk. We use this for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water and grasping objects. Our incisors grow into tusks and we use them as weapons and tools for moving objects and digging. Our large earflaps help us to control body temperature. We have pillar like legs that carry our weight. We are herbivorous and can survive in different habitats including savannahs, forests, deserts and marshes. Lastly, we prefer to stay near water.

Now that I have introduced myself, allow me to state why I chose to write to you humans. I am an endangered creature and I do not know what I did to deserve that. As humans continue to exploit wildlife and depleting their habitat, many of us have been left clinging to existence or gone extinct. Today the rate of extinction is 100 to 1000 times faster than the natural rate of die-offs. I understand that you have a ban on the international trade in ivory. However, we are still being poached in large numbers. Tens of thousands of us are killed every year. When we look at our killed members, we realize that having teeth (you call them ivory tusks) is our shortcoming.

I hear it fetches you millions in currency, but do you really care that we had a life to live? Ivory tusk is just one part of our body. This makes us get killed and the entire body is wasted. Sometimes we wish there was a way to pluck it out. We would do it and hand over to you. It is painful because some of you do not wait for us to die completely before you start the surgery. Do you normally get rich after doing the dirty work for some bustard in high offices? Does it make you happy to watch us die?

You sneak into our habitat (you call it park) and find us living in harmony. Before we know it, one of us gets killed. Poisoned arrows, spears, pangas, guns and Rungus among others are weapons formed by you against us. Why don’t you look for other means of making money? Does it have to be us dying? We can help you with farm work, transport or lifting heavy objects like those that we do in India. Come on, I am trying to offer you an alternative because we want to live.

Some of the humans are considerate. They even have organizations for protecting us and advocating for our rights, Kudos. What we are wondering is, have they achieved anything? I mean, we are still being killed in large numbers. Do they take advantage of us and make money for selfish reasons? Others have orphaned our babies in the name of conservation. We have a great memory and sometimes we get devastated when we go back to fetch our kids, but can’t trace them. Why are we still poached when wardens protect us 24 hours a day? Trackers? Aerial surveillance? Tough talking leadership? Amended laws and penalties? Would we be better off if we protected ourselves? A hundred of us die every day and we are worried. The remaining 450000-700000 will be extinct in the next few years. Are you not worried about your coming generation? If killing us does not stop, they will read about us in history books.

We labor for two years to produce offspring and then your selfishness snatches the babies from us. Sometimes we get killed and our babies are orphaned before they can lead life on their own. We understand that human population is growing rapidly. This has increased the need for more cultivatable land. We do not have a problem with this. Our concern is that when you decide to farm, notify us. As I mentioned earlier, we got great memory and we will remember where we got a sweet meal or water last year. Instead of applying fatal pesticides on your crops, just let us know that we are no longer welcome to that land. When we miss our way while visiting our long lost friends, be gentle and kind to us. Call KWS rangers who knows how to communicate with us, and a solution will be found. The famous human-wildlife conflict can be outdated if we respected each other.

We watched Sudan breath his last just the other day. We do not want to go that route. If you stopped poaching us, we can multiply in a few years and bring back the Elephant glory. Rumors from our friends in Kenya has it that there is a consideration to allow trophy hunting. It is not bad to engage in a sport. However, if it involves killing us, then it is selfish. We urge you humans to respect our right to live, stay away from our space, let us die of old age, let us take care of our babies and most importantly, let us help you earn revenue through tourism.

STOP POACHING!!!!