BIOLOGY-

Human Impact on Biodiversity

By-Devi Girish
(Some images can be a little violent to sensitive
viewers. These pictures are part of my research)
 Indian Elephants,
the first animals to become endangered
Domain: Eukaryote
Scientific name:Elephas maximus indicus
Subspecies:Asian Elephant
 Where do they live?
The habitats of the Indian elephant are
varied, but all are within the tropical
region. They can live in grasslands and a
variety of forests, including scrub forests,
tropical evergreen forests, and deciduous
forests. But since most of the forests have
been destroyed due to deforestation and
forest fires, these animals have been kept
in a sanctuaries in different places in
India.
The biggest sanctuary would be the
Bandipur National Park of Karnataka
along with Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.
These two sanctuaries are situated in the
southern part of India.
What do they eat?
They feed mainly on grasses, but large amounts of tree bark, roots, leaves and
small stems are also eaten. Cultivated crops such as bananas, rice and sugarcane
are favored foods as well. Since they need to drink at least once a day, these
elephants are always close to a source of freshwater.
Why are they endangered?

Indian elephants are threatened by habitat loss, degradation, and

fragmentation, as well as poaching. Approaches to conservation of
this species focus on maintaining their remaining habitat, creating
corridors to connect fragmented areas, and improving laws and
protections.

The main questions is:

What did they ever do to be
punished in this abusive and
harsh manner?
Asian elephants as well as Indian elephants have a number of traits that make
them vulnerable to a changing climate, including a declining population size,
sensitivity to high temperatures, invasive plant species outcompeting their regular
food sources, and susceptibility to disease.Elephants also have a low adaptive
capacity due to a limited dispersal ability, a long generation time, a slow
reproductive rate and only moderate amounts of genetic variation within the
species. And on top of this, humans have been cutting down trees, building
factories which increase the amount of pollution and causes forest fires due to
high temperatures and sometimes because of humans themselves. Elephants are
also hunted down for their tusks primarily for ivory.
 Why are these elephants important?
Elephants are not only a cultural icon in India and throughout Asia, they also help to maintain the integrity of their forest
and grassland habitats.

Indian elephants may spend up to 19 hours a day feeding and they can produce about 220 pounds of dung per day
while wandering over an area that can cover up to 125 square miles. This helps to disperse germinating seeds.

Indian beliefs: Superstitious people and people who believe in religions and gods have found out about a theory of
elephants being connected to Lord Ganesha who himself has an elephant head. The deaths of elephants all around
the world i known to decrease wisdom and luck in the universe.

Even though some are mythological reasons, why should these

animals die and suffer for our happiness and satisfaction of having
everything in life?

Elephants also have lives that are equally or more important than
ours….
What can be done to save Elephants and what is being done?

In the foothills of the Eastern Himalyays, the North Bank Landscape—made up of almost 1,160 square
miles—provides a safe harbor for the single largest elephant population in northeast India. This population
is among the five largest elephant populations in Asia. WWF works to secure this elephant population for
the long-term by maintaining habitat, significantly reducing existing and contiguous threats, and building
support for conservation of the population and its habitat.

Engineers can make a huge impact on conservation efforts by applying technology and innovation skills, if
we take the time to understand the problem and appreciate the many different perspectives surrounding
the problem.Engineers are planning to come up with a huge invention to stop endangerment in all of the
world. This means that animals from all over the world can be saved and hopefully retrieved from
extinction.
In conclusion:
The elephants are not the only animals going extinct because if you see in
australia, Koalas are getting close to extinction. Therefore we must all begin a new
lifestyle where we all do not encourage the use of plastic and other products that
harm the environment. Any animals extinction can cause a huge impact on the
world, therefore we must not let any animal lose its family or home.

Let's make sure we don’t have a sixth mass extinction...there are many scientific
theories that predict the extinction of humans during this apocalypse.

Let's bring back the old earth that had lustrous trees and many animals and let's get
rid of all the factories that cause excessive amounts of smoke unnecessarily.
References:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/indian-elephant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_elephant
Thank you