Elephants bring about more benefits to humans alive than when they are dead.
Thai search and rescue teams use elephants to clear rubble, find and remove bodies from areas where machines cannot reach, following the tsunami which struck South Asia on 26/12/2004. © Fredrik Naumann
One important benefit is that elephants can work to clear rubble after a natural disaster. In the Great Tsunami of 2004, elephants were used to clear away debris to look for survivors or bodies. Their sense of smell is better than humans and they have the agility to reach into tight spaces to remove the rubble far better than machinery. Recently, elephants have also been documented in rescuing people during floods. The paths that elephants routinely take can also create firebreaks which can limit the spread of forest fires in areas with sparse vegetation. All these contribute towards helping humans deal with natural disasters that can occur.
In addition, elephants show resistance to cancer. With more cells and DNA material, you would expect that mutations are more likely to occur yet they do not show any increase in cancer rates. Compared to humans, elephants actually have a lower risk of cancer. Henceforth, being able to study the genes of elephants may aid in the search for cancer treatments in humans.