<h5>How has poaching affected elephants? </h5>  <p>Poaching is the illegal killing and trading of wild animals. It is mainly done to illegally trade animal body parts like fur, organs, bones, teeth, etc. Elephants are a frequent target of poachers. That’s because their tusks are made of ivory which can be used to make jewellery and other decorative items. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, poaching resulted in the death of approximately 1,00,000 elephants every year. In 1989, many countries got together and signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The CITES banned the illegal trade of animals. This helped improve the elephant population.
Despite CITES, there has been an increase in the poaching of elephants due to the demand for ivory. In some countries, the problem is even worse due to inadequate law enforcement, corruption, etc. </p> <h5>Is anyone doing anything about it?</h5> <figure>
        <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/newsahoot.appspot.com/o/teenager-invents-lowcost-tool-to-spot-elephant-poachers%2Fteenager-invents-lowcost-tool-to-spot-elephant-poachers-section1.jpg?alt=media&token=59fff071-8489-4543-997c-6a462732a81d" alt="Is anyone doing anything about it?" >
        <figcaption>A pile of elephant tusks. </figcaption>
      </figure> <p>Many countries are trying to enforce rules to stop poaching. Anti-poaching squads have also been established in many countries including India. But, it’s not just countries that are taking the lead to stop poaching. Recently, Anika Puri, a teenage girl, invented a low-cost tool that can help spot elephant poachers. 
Puri was shocked to learn that even though the ivory trade is illegal, it hasn’t stopped. Her research showed that the population of Africa’s forest elephants had dropped a lot between 2002 to 2011. So, she decided to do something about it. 
She developed ElSa (short for elephant saviour). This is a low-cost software prototype that records the movement patterns of people and elephants. Well, how does ElSa work, you ask? Let’s read on.
</p> <h5>Oh wow! How does this technology work?</h5> <figure>
        <img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/newsahoot.appspot.com/o/teenager-invents-lowcost-tool-to-spot-elephant-poachers%2Fteenager-invents-lowcost-tool-to-spot-elephant-poachers-section2.jpeg?alt=media&token=b12dc264-4e94-4e38-aa03-ec2abc833e45" alt="Oh wow! How does this technology work?" >
        <figcaption>Anika Puri showing ElSa (elephant saviour). Photo by Goodable.</figcaption>
      </figure> <p>All EISa needs to work is an inexpensive thermal camera, an iPhone, and a drone. The iPhone and the camera are attached to a drone. Then, EISa does its magic! While flying over an area, EISa determines whether objects below it are elephants or humans based on their movements.</p>
<p>
Elizabeth Bondi-Kelly, a computer scientist from Harvard, working on a wildlife conservation project liked Anika Puri’s idea and became her mentor. This software has also been appreciated by Jasper Eikelboom, an ecologist at Wageningen University (Netherlands). Further testing must now be done to check ElSa’s full effectiveness.
</p> <h5>Can this technology be used for other purposes?</h5>  <p>Yes. ElSa can be utilised for a variety of purposes other than identifying poachers. It can be used to track other animals to learn more about them. Researchers can use this information to learn what the animals are doing and how they affect the environment. </p>
<p>Anika Puri will be attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She intends to improve EISa to also keep a track of other vulnerable species such as rhinos. Puri also intends to start using her software in African national parks.</p>
<p>Let’s hope that this EISa can help reduce poaching, if not completely stop it. If you study hard, maybe some of you could one day develop such software that helps animals in India. We should all be proud of Anika’s achievements. Is there any software you would like to develop?
</p>

Anika Puri has come up with software that can help spot poachers. Let’s read to know more about it. 

Teenager Invents Low-Cost Tool to Spot Elephant Poachers

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