Conservationist Sangita Iyer to address UK parliament on Asian elephant crisis on June 19

Iyer and British MP Henry Smith are set to enlist the aid of other parliamentarians and implore authorities in India to act urgently in view of the alarming number of deaths of elephants.

• Shubham
• 16 June, 2023

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By: Shubham Ghosh

INDIAN-CANADIAN elephant conservationist Sangita Iyer will address the UK parliament on Monday (19) to bring the world’s focus on the Asian elephant crisis urgently. She has joined hands with Tory parliamentarian Henry Smith, who is working on saving the endangered elephants in their last bastion: India. The speech will take place at Jubilee Room located in the annex of Westminster Hall of the parliament, the site of many animal welfare events.

Iyer and Smith are set to enlist the aid of other parliamentarians and implore authorities in India to act urgently in view of the alarming number of deaths of elephants caused by electrocution, poaching and loss of habitat, among other growing threats that can be prevented, a press release said.

The threats faced by the endangered Asian elephants have reached such a point in India where they are being killed alarmingly. There are only 40,000 of them left in the entire world and 60 per cent of those in India, protecting them in their final stronghold becomes critical to save the species. Their survival is even more important since they are a keystone species with many other species depending on them.

Iyer, who shot to fame with her United Nations-nominated documentary “Gods in Shackles” and currently lives in Toronto, Canada, has been working on the ground in India and around the world on behalf of the Asian elephant for more than a decade. Along with Smith, she will implore British parliamentarians to help prevent the extinction of elephants, while encouraging lawmakers, business leaders and celebrities to do their part in saving the animals before it’s too late.

This is the first of many meetings with world leaders, urging them to come together to save the Asian elephants for the good of the planet.

Iyer’s “Gods in Shackles” was the first to expose the abuse of India’s “sacred” temple elephants in the name of religion. Dr. Jane Goodall (DBE) wrote the foreword to her best-selling book, “Gods in Shackles: What Elephants Can Teach Us About Empathy, Resilience and Freedom”. A two-time Nat Geo Explorer, Iyer has devoted her life to protecting the Asian elephant.

She comes to the meeting having led a coalition that just purchased a four-acre plot of plantation land in north Nilambur region of the southern state of Kerala. The land will be returned to the forest department for “re-wilding,” opening up a safe pathway for more than 34 elephants. Iyer’s other work on the ground includes installing EleSense devices to alert train operators of the presence of elephants near the railway tracks. This has saved 88 elephants so far this year.

Smith has a rich history of advocating for animal welfare and conservation and calls for stringent laws against those who inflict pain and suffering on animals. He led two historic bills that recently passed in the House of Commons — Animals (Low Welfare Activities Abroad) Bill and Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill.

“Countries may have borders, but climate change does not,” Iyer said. “We are all connected in this magnificent web of life, so what happens to elephants in India will have a cascading effect. Recent amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act will embolden elephant captures, liberalize exploitation and make the situation dire.”

Smith said, “Trophy hunters now shoot so many elephants that, when we add the numbers that are poached, more elephants are killed each year than are born. Moreover, trophy hunters are shooting the biggest elephants with the biggest tusks. That is leading to artificial selection: only smaller-tusked elephants are surviving and passing on their genes.”

SOME KEY FACTS:

• Elephants have already lost 80% of their habitats to reckless development such as mining, electrocution, railways, roadways, and agriculture.
• In the last 10 years, nearly 1,200 elephants have been killed across India. And in the last three years, 245 of them have been killed in the central state of Odisha state where mining is rampant.
• The critical role of elephants in mitigating climate change has been elaborated in a study by the International Monetary Fund. It calculates the monetary and ecological value of one African forest elephant at $US 1.75 million in terms of carbon sequestration.
• Although no formal studies have been conducted on Asian elephants, they too likely help mitigate climate change that impacts all nations, including the UK that experienced historic heatwaves in July last year.
• Known as the ‘Gardeners of the Earth’, elephants spread seeds through their dung. In their vast daily wanderings, they trample smaller vegetation and trees to open up the soil to rain and sunlight and promote the growth of hardwood trees, which sequester more carbon than softwood trees.