elephants

Faced with poaching and the gradual destruction of their natural habitats, big mammals have largely disappeared, according to the survey which underlined the need to protect chimpanzees, buffaloes and elephants.

The apparent calm in the vast park, once teeming with elephants, lions and antelopes, has fuelled local hopes of a resurgence in tourism, despite warnings from Western embassies.

Club history recounts how colonial officers, after the capital of British-ruled India shifted to Delhi, pushed through the forests using elephants to map the course through the overgrown ruins.

Here’s the last sentence: “Then it is dark; it is a night where kings in golden suits ride elephants over the mountains.”

"The present distribution of elephants in India represents a mere fraction of their historical range," it said, estimating they now occupy only about 3.5 percent of the area they once roamed.