AK-47
rifles, RPGs, pistols and revolvers, a few artillery pieces, and some
homemade firearms. They also, however, have war elephants.
The mention of the phrase “war elephant” instantly takes one’s
imagination back in time, to the battlefields of the ancient world.
One imagines, perhaps, the great Carthaginian general Hannibal
leading his massive army with its force of forty elephants across the
Alps, or maybe an image is conjured in one’s mind of an ancient Indian
battlefield, or of an army of one of the medieval kingdoms of South-East
Asia.
One certainly wouldn’t imagine these enormous animals being used in
any war fought in modern times, much less the present day. However, as
anachronistic as it may seem, there is still one army on this planet
which still has a force of war elephants: an army called the Kachin
Independence Army (KIA), which controls a large swathe of territory in
northern Myanmar, a section of which extends into northeastern India and
southern China. War elephants depicted in Hannibal Barca crossing the Rhône (1878), by Henri Motte.
The Kachins are a distinct ethnic group, consisting of a number of
tribes who are indigenous to the area, called the State of Kachin. They
are mostly Christians, which makes them a religious minority in Myanmar.
The area they inhabit is rich with natural resources, particularly
jade, much of which is smuggled into China. They have been fighting a
war of independence against the government of Myanmar since 1961.
The KIA’s weapons are crude and basic, and typical of the type of
armaments possessed by many other Third World rebel militias: AK-47
rifles, RPGs, pistols and revolvers, a few artillery pieces, and some
homemade firearms. They also, however, have war elephants – something
that no other army in the world still uses.
The terrain of Kachin State is among the most rugged and impassable
on earth. The vegetation in the region largely consists of thick jungle,
and this, combined with the topography of the region – hilly, with
plenty of ravines, steep slopes and deep valleys – make huge swathes of
territory completely inaccessible to even the most hardy of off-road
vehicles. Location of Kachin State in Myanmar Photo by TUBS – CC BY SA 3.0
That makes for extreme logistical difficulties in terms of getting
supplies and weaponry to guerrilla troops in the deepest parts of the
jungle, where no vehicle can go. This is where the elephants come in.
The elephant corps of the Kachin Independence Army consists of around
forty to fifty elephants which are used to transport weapons and
supplies to fighters in extremely remote and inaccessible areas. Kachin Independence Army
Therefore, they are not the same type of pre-modern battlefield
“tanks” that one imagines when thinking of medieval or ancient war
elephants – and of course, using elephants in battle against a modern
army, armed with rocket launchers, automatic weapons and potent
artillery would be completely suicidal.
However, in terms of military logistical needs in the jungle, the
huge pachyderms are hard to beat, even in the era of modern technology.
Their ability to carry far heavier loads than any group of men means
that the elephants can keep guerrilla troops out in the field supplied
for greatly extended periods of time – which is ideal for a greatly
outnumbered force like the KIA, who rely on stealth and guerrilla
attacks against the numerically superior and better armed government
troops.
And, speaking of stealth, this is another area in which elephants
trump vehicles. While the racket of a jeep or motorcycle tearing through
the jungle can be heard for miles around, an elephant can slip silently
through the vegetation, passing within mere yards of people without
alerting them to its presence – a fact that anyone has had the privilege
to encounter these magnificent creatures in the wild can attest to.
They don’t get stuck in mud, like vehicles do, and can cross swollen
rivers with ease without the need for bridges. Also, unlike a jeep or
motorcycle, an elephant’s fuel is the jungle, rather than gasoline or
diesel, which would have to be shipped in to remote areas. War elephant
War elephants like those used by the KIA were used in the 20th
century by a far more well-known military force: the Viet Cong, during
the Vietnam War.
Like the KIA’s elephants, the Viet Cong’s were not used in combat,
but were used by the guerrillas to transport valuable supplies, weapons
and ammunition through the thickest and most impenetrable parts of the
jungle. In a bid to cut off the Viet Cong supply lines, US forces in
Vietnam would, sadly, sometimes massacre entire groups of elephants that
they suspected were being used by the enemy, strafing the animals from
attack helicopters.
While the use of elephants in war is not something that should be
happening in this era, in which so many species of wild animals are on
the brink of extinction, it is unfortunately something that is likely to
continue until the Kachin conflict is resolved – which is probably not
going to happen any time soon
So, in this remote, nearly impassable region of our planet, the
4,000-year-old tradition of using elephants in warfare is likely to be
maintained for the foreseeable future.
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