Asian elephant
The Asian elephant ("Elephas maximus"), also called Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus "Elephas" and is distributed in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India and Nepal in the west to Borneo in the south. Three subspecies are recognised—"E. m. maximus" from Sri Lanka, "E. m. indicus" from mainland Asia and "E. m. sumatranus" from the island of Sumatra. The Asian elephant is the largest living land animal in Asia.
Elephants in Thailand
Asian elephants share a close relationship with the Thai people, from being used warriors on battlefields, worshiped as religious icons, and faithful laborers to loggers. Environmental exploitation, massive landslides and mudflows led the government to ban logging in Thailand in 1986 . This lead to almost 70% of domesticated elephants to be out of work but they still help a large amount of cultural significance in Thailand and were are large part of the locals livelihood. After the ban on logging a lot of the elephants joined the tourist industry and became part of trekking camps and street begging . Today many elephant activists such as Lek Chailert are making "ecotourism" more popular, working to free these gentle giants from work and promote their conservation while maintaining their cultural significance within Thailand .