Elephant
In 2008, the IUCN listed the Asian elephant as endangered due to a 50% population decline over the past 60–75 years while CITES lists the species under Appendix I. Asian elephants once ranged from Syria and Iraq (the subspecies "Elephas maximus asurus"), to China (up to the Yellow River) and Java. It is now extinct in these areas, and the current range of Asian elephants is highly fragmented. The total population of Asian elephants is estimated to be around 40,000–50,000, although this may be a loose estimate. It is likely that around half of the population is in India. Although Asian elephants are declining in numbers overall, particularly in Southeast Asia, the population in the Western Ghats appears to be increasing.
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 .