Thai elephants have been highly praised and nationally proclaimed throughout history, but very little has been done to protect them. The threats against Thai elephants mainly coming from human exploitation. Direct threats include poaching for ivory and elephant calves, and illegal logging or roaming the city streets for money. Indirect threats involve mismanagement and shortsighted policies, such as  implementation of 1989 logging ban. Through these various threats, it portray how the value orientations, attitudes, beliefs, conflicts of humans impacted the elephants in Thailand.

The population of the elephants are decreasing at an alarming rate and the various threats aggravated the situations.

Elephant Population in Thailand from 1951 to 2001.
Source: Laohachaiboon, 2010.