Why are there no elephants in China? And, by way of contrast, why have there been and continue to be large numbers of elephants in the Indian subcontinent across its geography and throughout its recorded history? Why are these two largest countries of Asia so different in their attitudes towards the elephant? These questions are addressed in Thomas Trautmann’s groundbreaking masterpiece Elephants and Kings: An Environmental History. Trautmann introduces the concept of ‘land ethic’ in his explanation of the divergent ecological histories of the two countries. Olivelle's paper is a small contribution to furthering our understanding of the Indian land ethic, expanding on Trautmann’s definition focused on the Indian war elephant and the establishment of elephant forests. The paper presents four further facets of the land ethic: economic, recreational, religious, and aesthetic.

Patrick Olivelle was the chair of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, and of Asian Studies at the University of Texas, where he is currently Professor Emeritus. He also was the past President of the American Oriental Society and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Chicago in 2016 and the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996. His recent book Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King was included in The New Yorker’s The Best Books of 2024.