Today marks the 10th Anniversary of World Elephant Day, launched to bring international attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants, under threat of poaching, habitat loss, human-elephant conflict and mistreatment in captivity. The elephant is loved and respected by people throughout the world, yet we balance on the brink of seeing the last of this magnificent creature.
PG Paper is proud to work closely with Elephant Family, a UK-based wildlife conservation charity established in 2003, working with Asian elephants and local people in their communities across the Indian Subcontinent to protect the species. Asian elephant numbers are in severe decline and are now featured on the IUCN Red List.
The Tartan Trekkers
PG’s leadership team, philanthropists Puneet and Poonam Gupta, took part in the “Travels to my Elephant” rickshaw race across India in 2015, and again in 2017. Organised by the Elephant Family and the Quintessentially Foundation the race raises awareness and money for the Asian Elephant’s plight and was inspired by the charity’s founder, the late great Mark Shand.
Serial entrepreneur ‘Puneet Gupta’ commented:
“Poonam and I were privileged to take part in the 2015 and 2017 races. As “The Tartan Trekkers” our journey saw our rickshaw valiantly fighting for road space with buses, cars, people and cows. It was an amazing, fun and challenging experience with such a central message around the importance of humans and elephants sharing space on our planet.”
The CoExistence Campaign
This key message of co-existence was the theme of the recent CoExistence Campaign which saw a herd of beautifully sculptured elephants arrive in The Mall from the Cotswolds, before making their way through Chelsea, St James’s Park and Berkeley Square in London.
Puneet Gupta, was not only there, he got to meet his very own elephant:
“The project is a partnership between the Real Elephant Collective and the Elephant Family, a charity I have supported for many years. Poonam and I were delighted to meet our very own elephant sculpture, aptly named “Rickshaw” when we visited the environmental art installation a couple of weeks ago. As we prepare for COP26 it’s incredibly important that we look at how humans and wildlife can successfully live and flourish side-by-side on our planet.”