Home to large numbers of elephants, India has some of the strictest elephant protection laws in Asia. Elephants have been granted (给予) the highest level of legal protection for wildlife. Strict bans exist on poaching (偷猎), and trading them, with heavy fines and prison sentences of up to seven years.
China had been making efforts to protect its small population of elephants since the 1980s. Local authorities in areas with elephants such as Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, have not only made efforts to move human populations away from elephant habitats but have also worked with private insurance companies to insure farmers' crops against damage caused by the animals. According to one report, the population of elephants in China nearly doubled between the 1980s and 2021.
While both India and China have made efforts to protect the elephant and some success had been achieved, danger still appears as conservation laws are often either flouted (轻视) or not implemented. Strengthening domestic (国内的) laws is not enough. The animals now face the much more dangerous threat of climate change which calls for united action by these two leading economies.
There are many opportunities for cooperation between New Delhi and Beijing on elephant protection. These could potentially include: formation of a cooperative institute for research on elephant conservation; joint efforts on reforestation to ensure the expansion of buffer zones (缓冲区) between animal populations and human settlements; the training of local populations that live near elephant habitats and have traditional knowledge of harmonious living with elephants; formation of a joint resource fund for building care facilities and to achieve set targets to increase the population of elephants through careful breeding.
By doing so, India and China would promote economic growth through an ecological path and responsible ecotourism in not just the two nations but in Asia at large. Such joint efforts would also lead to better relations between the two countries.
