Distribution
The current distribution of the Asian elephant lies in the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia. The principal populations are in:

• Burma
• Cambodia
• India
• Indonesia (Sumatra)
• Laos
• Malaysia
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand
• Vietnam
• Small populations (fewer than 500 individuals) in Bangladesh, Bhutan, southwest China, Indonesia (Kalimantan) and Nepal.

About half the total world population is in India, and half of that in the southwest of the country. In former times, the range extended almost continuously from the Near East to the Pacific coast of China, but in the past two hundred years this has become greatly reduced and fragmented.