“Gods in Shackles: What Elephants Can Teach Us About Empathy, Resilience, and Freedom” by Sangita Iyer (vegan), Part 2 of 2

“There are so many parallels between the suffering of elephants, and indeed, all animals, and our own suffering. If we went inside, and we got in touch with our own emotions, we will be able to see the suffering of all beings. Because they are our non-human brothers and sisters, they are our brethren, and we need to respect every single creature on the planet.” “What is the difference between a chipmunk, or an elephant, or us? It’s the same; they have a family, they are connected with each other.”

“Aside from producing the film and creating awareness and everything, I felt I needed to do more. That’s why I created Voice for Asian Elephants Society. And Voice for Asian Elephants Society’s mission is to protect the endangered Asian elephants, by mitigating human-elephant conflict and ending elephant captivity, by also empowering local people and creating sustainable human communities.” “We work with the farmers. They install high-voltage fencing to protect their crops – they have to protect their crops – but we are installing elephant-friendly fencing, solar fencing with not such high voltage. And then, of course, the elephant rehabilitation for captive elephants in the camps – that is in government-run elephant camps.”

New research also links climate change with elephant-people. “Elephants are climate mitigators. In the African forest, scientists discovered that African elephants trample the softwood trees, they clear up the forest floor, and the rain and sunshine can penetrate the Earth, making way for these nutrients to be absorbed by the hardwood trees. And hardwood trees sequester a lot more carbon dioxide than softwood trees. According to their research, each elephant also stores carbon in its body, because it’s a massive body. And when you combine the ecological significance that elephants bring, plus the carbon they store in their body, plus the carbon they allow the hardwood trees to store, each elephant produces or stores about $1.2 million worth of carbon through its lifespan. Losing them would be catastrophic, spiritually, emotionally, culturally, ecologically, and most importantly, forest ecosystems, will begin to collapse if elephants disappear. This is what climate scientists are now saying – that we need to save the elephants.”