World Elephant Day (12 August) History, Significance, Theme and Observation

World Elephant Day Quick Facts

World Elephant Day Brief

World Elephant Day is celebrated every year on 12 August all over the world to protect and honor elephants and spread awareness about the significant threats they face. The main objective of celebrating this day is the conservation of elephants. 'World Elephant Day' is to provide information about the number, betterment, and management of wild elephants.

World Elephant Day Objective

The Purpose of World Elephant Day is to create awareness among the people for the protection of Elephants, prevention of illegal hunting and trafficking, better treatment of elephants and sending captured elephants to sanctuaries.

The day is also observed to bring attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants and to share knowledge and positive solutions for better care and management of captive and wild elephants. It is also the national heritage animal of India.

African elephants, 'vulnerable elephants', and Asian elephants are shown in the 'Endangered' category in the IUCN Red List. According to the estimates obtained about the elephant population in the year 2017, there are now only four lakh African elephants and forty thousand Asian elephants left in the world.

More info about World Elephant Day

Interesting Facts about Elephants:

• Elephant is a huge land animal. It is the largest mammal living on land.
• Elephants always like to live in herds, their herd is represented by the eldest elephant, that is, elephants are a symbol of matriarchy.
• Elephants forge close friendships. They are always ready to help each other in times of sorrow.
• Elephants have the largest brains. Elephants can sense the smell of water from 12 miles away and they can change their direction when they sense the danger in advance.
• The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months, which is the longest among land animals.
• An elephant baby weighs about 105 kg at birth. Elephants typically live to be 50 to 70 years old, although the longest recorded life (longevity) of elephants is 82 years.
• In 1955, the world's largest elephant was killed in Angola. The male elephant weighed about 10,900 kg and was 3.96 m tall at the shoulder, which is about a meter more than a typical African elephant.
• Elephant's teeth continue to grow throughout life. The teeth of an adult male elephant grow to about 18 cm in a year. Elephants have a total of 28 teeth.
• The best quality of elephants is that they learn very quickly and cooperate fully while teaching.
• Elephants are very cool maula, they love to play and do not harass anyone without reason and that is why children also love them very much.

Important Days of August Month - (National Days and International Days):