An Indian elephant drinks water from a hand pump in New Delhi. India's elephant population is teetering on the brink of extinction, animal rights activists say.
Elephants are almost extinct in India.
She said the problem had become particularly acute because the country's population of tuskers, or adult male elephants, was dwindling fast. The Asian elephant is not like the African elephant. Only the males have tusks. Environmentalists say the ratio between male and female elephants in India has become so skewed because male elephants are targeted by ivory poachers for their tusks. Iqbal Malik, a leading animals rights activist, said India was losing 10 percent of its tusker population every year to ivory poachers.