Will Asian elephants be saved? Bangladesh orders an end to capture and training.

The continued granting of licences for the use of elephants in private circuses – along with the progressive deforestation of the territory – has in fact serious consequences for the state of the species, which is critically endangered. The Asian elephant is in fact included in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a global body involved in nature conservation.

The Asian elephant Elephas maximus was added to the IUCN Red List of threatened species in 2019. Its degree of extinction risk is A2c.

You can see the List here:

https://www.iucnredlist.org

It is estimated that around 200 elephants still live in Bangladesh. Until now it was possible to obtain a licence to capture elephants for, so to speak, work purposes, that is, to have them carry tree trunks.
Many of the animals, however, ended up in circuses, or even in street performances. Then there are countless episodes of mistreatment, which cause severe stress in the animals, sometimes leading them to behaviour that is dangerous to themselves and to the population.
This brutal type of ‘training’ even has a name: Hadani. And it is precisely the declaration that hadani is illegal that is the good news that animal rights activists in Bangladesh and around the world are welcoming, hoping it will become reality. ‘A historic decision’ is how Rakibul Haque Emil, director of People for Animal Welfare (PAW), a Bangladeshi animal rights group, described it.

It was PAW, together with the well-known Bengali actress Jaya Ahsan, that brought the public interest case against the granting of licences.
‘Private licence holders, including those of circuses, brutally separate elephant calves from their mothers, chain them for months and then torture them to teach them tricks,’ Emil explained. ‘We hope this is the end of hadani in Bangladesh.’