Singapore crushes massive ivory haul on eve of World Elephant Day

Singapore began destroying nine tonnes of seized ivory Tuesday, the largest such action globally in recent years, including contraband tusks that came from more than 300 African elephants.

The destruction by an industrial rock crusher was held on the eve of WorldElephantDay, and aims to prevent the items from re-entering the market and disrupt the global supply chain of illegally traded ivory, Singapore's National Parks Board said.

In the event, streamed online, workers in hard hats were seen emptying trolley-loads of tusks into a skip where they were then pulverised by an industrial rock crusher.

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Ivory, seized from various shipments in past years, is crushed by the National Parks Board (NParks) at a facility in Singapore

The crushing process may take several days and the fragments will then be incinerated.

"The destruction of the ivory... will prevent it from re-entering the market and will disrupt the global supply chain of illegally traded ivory," the National Parks Board said of the event.

An estimated 100 Africanelephants are killed every day by poachers seeking ivory, meat and body parts, leaving only 400,000 remaining, environmentalists estimate. A large chunk of the demand for ivory comes from Asian countries such as China and Vietnam, where it is turned into jewels and ornaments.

As well as taking a tough stance on transited products, Singapore said last year it would ban the domestic trade in ivory from September 2021.

"Elephantpoaching is at crisis levels in Asia and Africa due to the illegal trade," said R. Raghunathan, CEO of World Wide Fund for Nature Singapore.

Raghunathan said the city-state's ivory crush and other initiatives underlined its determination to "stamp out the illicit transit of wildlife products through Singapore".

Neighbouring Malaysia destroyed 9.55 tonnes of seizedelephanttusks in 2016.