DHAKA: The slaughter of Africa’s elephants and the illegal trade in ivory in China are ‘out of control’, conservationists said Tuesday, with wild elephants potentially disappearing within a generation.

Soaring quantities of ivory are being sold in rapidly growing numbers of shops in China, with over 100,000 elephants killed from 2010 to 2102, the joint report read from the campaign groups Save the Elephants and The Aspinall Foundation.

‘Skyrocketing demand for ivory in China - the wholesale price of raw elephant tusks has tripled in just four years since 2010 - have sparked a booming trade in smuggled ivory that is driving the unsustainable killing of elephants in Africa,’ the report read, released in the Kenyan capital, reports The Straits Times.

Poaching has risen sharply across Africa in recent years, fuelled by rising demand in Asia for ivory and rhino horn, coveted as a traditional medicine and a status symbol.

BDST: 1335 HRS, DEC 09, 2014