New Delhi: Vivek Menon, Executive Director of the Wildlife Trust of India and Director of IFAW in India has joined forces with five other renowned elephant experts from the world to prevent Australia from importing Asian elephants from Thailand for its proposed captive breeding program.

Dr David Suzuki, Dr Richard Leakey, Professor Clive Phillips, Vivek Menon, Dr Ros Clubb and Dr Cynthia Moss have written an open letter to the Australian Environment Minister asking him to refuse import permits for eight Asian elephants destined for Australian zoos.

The open letter addressed to Senator Ian Campbell, Minister for Environment and Heritage , Australia on 3rd June, expressing deep concern by the elephant experts has raised several doubts on the proposed captive breeding program of the elephants from Thailand for Australian zoos.

These experts fear that the Australian zoo authorities have ignored the possibility of high incidence of infant mortality in captive breeding elephants, which has been historically over 20% of Asian elephant zoo births. They also fear that the program will continue to rely heavily on the importation of Asian elephants from Thailand and possibly other range states in the future and stands to challenge the very tenets of conservation practice worldwide.

They also opine that a true captive breeding program is undertaken in an effort to return offspring to the wild. However, the zoos have made no secret of the fact that none of the progeny from this proposed captive breeding program will be returned to the wild. Furthermore, in contrast to the arguments put forwarded by the zoo officials, Menon argues that the numbers of Asiatic elephants as per-se in the present context is not a problem in Asia, but their habitats and the male-female ratios in all the Asian range states are the two major threats to the species.

Other factors that also stand to contradict the claims of the zoo officials are the fact that elephants are highly social and intelligent beings and require large migratory pathways. “In the wild, Asian elephants live in highly developed social groupings where strong family relationships are prominent” says Menon.

In addition, inadequate opportunity for exhibiting natural behavior may lead to the development of repetitive behaviors such as swaying and head bobbing. Moreover, the zoos in the west are relying heavily on the success of artificial insemination techniques to boost their breeding program; these are highly invasive practices for the animals in question and remain highly experimental. Experts say that under the present conditions the zoos do not have adequate facilities for a successful captive breeding program and to meet the complex needs of these large animals.

Australia ‘s National Environment legislation has strong criteria for assessing imports of endangered species such as Asian elephants. Zoos must demonstrate that they can meet the biological and behavioral needs of the animals in justifying their claims of conservation goals of protected animals. These six experts have led the mounting opposition to the proposal stating there is no conservation benefit to the import. In their letter the experts outline why a zoo captive breeding program is not the answer to save the Asian elephant. They also outline the animal welfare concerns for elephants in zoos.

“In order to bring the elephants to Australia the zoos must prove that they are helping to conserve the species, which is why they have proposed starting a captive breeding program,” said Mr. Mick McIntyre, Director of IFAW Asia-Pacific.

Senator Ian Campbell is due to make his decision on whether to allow the importation of elephants to Taronga and Melbourne zoos in the near future.

“It is inconceivable that Australian zoos that pride themselves in being leaders in conservation would seek to perpetuate a practice which progressive zoos in Europe and North America are phasing out as they have realized they simply cannot meet the complex needs of elephants in a zoo environment,” said McIntyre.

According to Vivek Menon, “The eight elephants that are scheduled for Australia are at present kept in a temporary holding facility south of Bangkok ”.

After having worked for 18 years in elephant conservation throughout Asia , including rescue and rehabilitation of elephants and against poachers for ivory, Vivek Menon would be very happy to see the end of the practice of displaying elephants in zoos. He said, the issue of transporting these animals to Australia , was also brought to the notice of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand during his last visit to Thailand with the IFAW delegation. He is hopeful that Her Majesty Queen Sirikit would use her influences for the larger interest of protecting and conserving these animals in the light of the challenges of the 21 st century.