Educating ourselves about elephants and the history of elephant exploitation is vital to understanding what goes on and how we can take impactful action in reducing and ultimately eliminating cruelty to elephants.

Articles

• The article Elephant Sense and Sociality describes the social dynamics and bonds amongst elephants.

Films

• Gods in Shackles: By Sangita Iyer, an award-winning filmmaker. Describes the mistreatment of elephants.

Books

• H. Byju: A conservationist whose book Matriarch: Autobiography of an Elephant focus on migratory pathways and the critical role of the matriarch in navigating landscapes.
• Right of Passage is a critical resource documenting elephant corridors across India, co-edited by Vivek Menon, founder of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).
• By Cynthia J. Moss: Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family is an eye-opening account of the lives and relationships of elephants in the wild in Kenya.
• Elephant Don: The Politics of a Pachyderm Posse by Caitlin O'Connell describes the social world of elephants.
• By Raman Sukumar: Elephant Days and Nights: Ten Years with the Indian Elephant. Raman Sukumar is a leading naturalist and a key member of "Project Elephant," a plan set up by the Indian government to protect the elephant along the lines of "Project Tiger." This book is a highly readable account of his experiences during ten years of research on the Indian elephant.

Temple Fixtures

Some temples display and parade elephants just to maintain tradition, even when the elephants are often extremely malnourished and cut a sorry figure. Eliminating this not only enhances the image of the temple as a humane organization and also frees up funds.

Pulling Chariots

Several centuries ago, when there were no motorized vehicles, it probably made sense for a beast like the elephant to replace thousands of humans in pulling a heavy chariot. This no longer makes sense. We have enough vehicles that are more than powerful in pulling the heaviest of chariots. For temples that still desire the symbolism of an elephant pulling their chariot, robotic mechanical elephants are available that can provide the symbolism while doing the heavy pulling.

Elephant Rides

Let's change our attitudes that elephants are to be petted, ridden on and taken selfies with. See elephants as wild animals and view them during a safari trip from inside their vehicles—akin to how we regard lions, tigers, rhinoceroses, etc. Reducing the need for elephant rides and elephant petting zoos will aid in reducing their capture, domestication, and abuse.