An increasing number of elephants in northern Burma are being killed for its ivory and skin for over a decade by local people, sources said.
Every year, hundreds of wild elephants around Kachin state are killed for its ivory and skin by local people after Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military junta in 1994, said local owners of tame elephants. An elephant camp was placed near Hpakant jade mining city in Kachin state, northern Burma. At current prices in Kachin state, a set of tusks weighing from one to two Viss is valued at 500,000 Kyat (US $ 397) to 600,000 Kyat (US $ 476). It is over 1.5 million Kyat for a set of tusks weighing over 10 Viss (1Viss = 1.6 Kilograms in Burmese measurement in weight). Again one Viss of dry elephant skin is valued at over 40,000 Kyat (US $32), according to residents of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state. Three tame elephant owners in Myitkyina told KNG today, "Now, elephants are mainly killed for their skin. An elephant has at least over 100 Viss of skin so hunters can earn a net income of over 4 million Kyat from an elephant's skin alone."
According to merchants dealing in elephant ivory and skin in Myitkyina, ivory is mainly exported to neighbouring Thailand and some to China but elephant skin is mainly exported to China for traditional treatment of human gastritis and wounds on the body.
Hunting elephants and selling its ivory and skin are illegal in Kachin state but local hunters and merchants are in this business by handing out bribes to local policemen and forest officials of the Burmese ruling junta, added local elephant owners.
Elephant owners in Myitkyina said the junta and the KIO authorities are yet to take serious action against illegal elephant trappers. No hunter has been arrested yet since the increase in hunting pachyderms in the state from 1994.
Several elephants owners in Kachin state said, there are only about 1,000 wild elephants left in Kachin state and most pachyderms are in Hukawng Valley in the west of the state, bordering India. Here elephants are mainly hunted for business purposes.
Before 1994, when the KIO and the junta signed a ceasefire agreement, there were over 3,000 wild elephants in Kachin state. The animals were killed mainly for ivory at that time, said local elephant owners.
Currently, there are over 500 tame elephants in Kachin state and they are made to work in logging camps and gold mines for transporting rations, said local sources.
Burma has the largest elephant population in Southeast Asia, with an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 pachyderms, a report by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC said.
