Why Are Most of Tanzania's Elephants Disappearing?
Recent revelations that Tanzania's once vast herds are vanishing come as no surprise, says leader of the Environmental Investigation Agency.
Tanzania's elephant population has plummeted by more than 60 percent during the past five years, the country's government announced this month.
Elephants in this East African country—a major, if not the world's biggest source of illegal ivory—were estimated to number only 43,330 at the end of 2014, down from 109,051 in 2009.
Tanzania's Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Lazaro Nyalandu, says the drastic decline might be because elephants had migrated into neighboring countries. The ministry, he said recently, is trying "to find out what happened to these elephants."
Mary Rice, Executive Director of the Environmental Investigation Agency, an environmental watchdog group, says that response suggests that Tanzania is still not serious about tackling the real root of its elephant
