EleAid trustee Charles Begley has had a long interest in the status and circumstances of elephants in Burma.
Burma has a long history of elephants. For over a thousand years the people of Burma have used domesticated elephants for a variety of purposes including transportation, construction, agriculture and war. Elephants, particularly the rare white elephants were greatly revered and they were am important part of national life. During the colonial period the British continued to use elephants on an industrial scale to extract teak and other tropical hardwoods from the jungle. This practice continues today and Burma maintains the largest number of domesticated elephants in Asia.
Burma also has the second largest number of wild elephants and the largest remaining areas of natural elephant habitat and for these reason the country will probably play a key role if wild elephants are going to survive in Asia in the future.
In March 2006 Charles was able to visit Burma and supplement his research with a fieldtrip. His report details his findings and provides an insight into the situation of Burma's elephants today.
The report is in pdf format which is readable on most computers and can be downloaded here
