Thailand issues world's first lot of elephant ID cards

PRACHUAP, KHIRI KHAN, THAILAND, March 25 (TNA) - The first lot of elephant identity (ID) cards has been issued and presented for the first time in the world in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province in the Upper Thai South. Prachuap Khiri Khan Governor Weera Sriwatanatrakul presided over the ID card presentation ceremony at Elephant Village in the Muang Hua Hin Municipality on March 24. The cards cover 32 elephants of four operators, including the Elephant Village, the Hutsadin Elephant Foundation, Hua Hin Safari, and Hua Hin Hills Vineyard. The ID cards contain the names, ages, addresses, ID card numbers, photographs, marks, birthdays, parents' names, owners' names and microchip numbers of the elephants. The initiative move complies with the new regulation on elephant records of the Thai Interior Ministry and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to fight against illegal ivory trade. Meanwhile, Assistant Prachuap Khiri Khan Governor Pongpan Wichiansamut told journalists that it was the first time in the world for elephants to have their residential registration and ID cards, aimed to prevent wild elephants from being kept and claimed as raised elephants. (TNA)