In January 2022, conservationists in Sri Lanka reported that several elephants had died after eating plastic waste. In total, there have been 20 dead elephants in recent years around a rubbish dump where large amounts of plastic waste are dumped and scavenged by hungry elephants. A study in the “Journal for Nature Conservation” by Gitanjali Katlam from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and her team shows that plastic consumption by animals in South Asia is widespread and could also be a threat to their natural ecosystems.
The working group observed the behavior of wild Asian elephants in the vicinity of Jim Corbett National Park in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. In addition to wild greens, the animals also eat fruit or grain from farmland. Leftovers often end up in landfills, where the elephants then use them. The elephants also ingest large amounts of plastic waste, as Katlam and Co were able to observe.
The rubbish is not digested in the stomach of the pachyderm, or only very superficially, and is largely excreted with the faeces – even in the middle of the national park, into which the waste is also carried in this way. About a third of the faecal samples examined were contaminated with it. The waste, which consisted of 85 percent plastic, was found particularly in forests near the open landfills. Sometimes the scientists were even able to identify the original object, such as plastic bags or food containers.
In addition to the direct entry of the waste, the working group also fears the ecotoxicological consequences: the plastics partially dissolve during digestion, so that plasticizers and other chemicals can accumulate in the elephants or via the food chain. Many insects live in and from the faeces of large mammals and in turn provide food for reptiles, amphibians or birds. In the case of the elephants in Sri Lanka, veterinarians found stomachs completely filled with plastic waste after they died. That was very, very likely the direct cause of death.