Ivory is a hard, white material, derived from the tusks of an elephant. It can also be extracted from the teeth of other animals. In most of the countries it is forbidden to trade ivory or any carvings out of ivory. It is also illegal to trade ivory across the countries. However, in Thailand ivory trade within the country is legal.

So Thailand is allowed to use the tusks of their domestic elephants, but the wild life protection groups claim that African elephant are being killed for their tusks and the ivory is sent to Thailand for their domestic trade.

The Thailand prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra took a vow during Sunday’s opening meeting Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, in Bangkok, that she will stop the mixing of African ivory and also try to put an end to domestic trade eventually. 178 nations participated in the event.