Save the Elephants

Elephants are really cool guys. They can live for 70 years and are the biggest land mammals on earth. 

That was printed on one of the shirts that my little boy loves to wear, a delightful find from one of my charity shop excursions. Sadly though, elephants, especially the tuskers rarely survive that long, no thanks to the insatiable demand for ivory. Last year while reading the Saturday Times, I have come across the report on the tragic death of Satao, one of the world's largest elephants at the time of his death and one of Kenya's most iconic and well-known tuskers who was killed by a poisoned arrow in the Tsavo East National Park at just 45 years old. A magnificent creature had to die so that someone can show off an ornament on their mantelpiece.

The closest encounter I have had with an elephant was on a day trip to Chester Zoo in 2013 on a rather cold February morning when a mother and a baby elephant came out of their shelter to give us visitors a reason to cheer. British winters can be quite harsh for anyone whose genetic make up is more suitable for warmer weather, I can tell because I was brought up in a tropical climate and it has taken me a while to get used to the cold. But these mighty animals are here for conservation and the zoo is doing a good job of it although from the look on their faces (I can see it in my husband's face especially when he pines for his spiritual home in Spain), sometimes animals (or people) crave for what makes them happy rather than what makes them feel safe.

So I wouldn't blame them if they do want to go 'home'. Someday I would love to see them in the wild and take our little boy too. When John was 14, his family visited relatives in Zimbabwe who lived close to the national park and he had witnessed a parade of elephants frolicking in Lake Kariba. It changes the way you look at life, he says, because you realise that the world does not revolve around you. It is that change that I would like Isaac to experience too although I'm afraid that by the time we could finally afford to go, it might be too late.

But we are taking little steps that we are hoping would help. Making greener lifestyle choices and supporting the World Wife Fund for Nature (WWF) are some of them. Regardless of what your beliefs are, we owe it to our children to protect the planet they will inherit, their future and the next generation's survival will depend on it. That is our greatest gift to them.