World Elephant Day 2026: Indonesia's fight to save its elephantsRe-engaging with local cultural traditions can strengthen community stewardship and revive traditional relationships between indigenous communities and elephants. This fragmentation physically separates elephant subpopulations and significantly increases the frequency of negative human-elephant interactions in surrounding areas.When elephant groups are confined to small, isolated habitat pockets, the risk of inbreeding increases substantially. Over time, inbreeding can reduce genetic diversity, increase the prevalence of congenital defects and weaken immune responses to potentially fatal diseases.Illegal poaching also remains a persistent threat. Re-engaging with local cultural traditions can strengthen community stewardship and revive traditional relationships between indigenous communities and elephants.Cross-sector cooperation is vital to ensuring the instruction’s success. Editor: M Razi RahmanCopyright © ANTARA 2026