Even in this age of atomic energy and jet propulsion, the market for elephants is still strong. Their value as a means of extracting timber in thick forests, as a mode of transport in otherwise inaccessible tracts of country and for ceremonial uses has not in the least declined.

There are those who, misled by the elephants' huge size, overestimate their strength, and work them till they break down. Then they decry them as weak and delicate animals. Admittedly elephants are, size for size, about a quarter less strong than a horse and slightly weaker even than man. But with the necessary knowledge of their habits in their wild state, and with proper care and attention, these sagacious and docile creatures will perform a great variety of tasks and get through an enormous amount of heavy work, resulting in an appreciable saving of man-power and complicated mechanical devices.