The decline and the fall of India's ivory industry

Abstract

Although 19th century statistics are incomplete the import of raw African ivory into India increased gradually. The two main ports of Bombay and Surat received an annual average of 150 tonnes each between 1803-1819 while the average between 1820-1857 increased to 234 tonnes. From 1830 to the late 1850s a significant amount of imported ivory was re-exported to Britain and to China. From the 1879s to WWI India was one of the largest import and re-export ivory markets. Between the two World Wars the import declined. Immediately after WWII India a major importer taking an annual average of 246 tonnes from 1944-1947, but by the 1950s this dropped to 115 tons. By 1958 Hong Kong became the largest ivory importer followed by Japan. Indian official imports of raw ivory average 50 tons in the 1960s. Illegal East African ivory arrived throughout the 1960s and 1970s although some was imported from Hong Kong during the later years. Annual legal imports in the 1980s were just over 13 tonnes according to Indian Customs and about 9.46 according to CITES. Suggests the 7,200 craftsmen in India in 1978, due to both internal and external situations in the industry, had dwindled to 2,000 artisans by 1989.