Mark Shand quotes:

If you cut down the forest, you know what happens: The whole of Asia turns into a desert. Without water, you're talking civil unrest, war, mud slides - the whole bloody lot.

Elephant populations in India and also in the whole of Asia are under severe stress. The captive ones are rendered jobless due to changes in the mode of transport and lifestyle of people. The ones in the wild are also no better off, as the forests are shrinking.

Surrounded by a burgeoning human population, Asian elephants have to contend with the spread of settlements and farming, and the demands of rapidly developing nations: plantations, mines, railways, and irrigation canals have carved up former wilderness.

If you look back at history, the various Maharajas of the Indian empire actually helped support a whole British industry. The royalty in those days ordered exotic cars in huge numbers.

In the central Indian state of Orissa, mining has scarred the landscape, and it is already too late to secure most of the traditional elephant corridors.

There are 13 Asian countries that still have elephants, and Elephant Family is looking to invest in further projects that will be the most critical for saving elephants while there is still time.

Elephants love to play around. They are very intelligent animals. They have a strong bond, at times stretching to several decades, with their mahouts.

I've always found people to be by far the biggest problem-causers in life.

If I was a businessman, I could have made a huge amount of money. But none of that really crossed my mind while I was young and traveling.

The elephant can survive only if forests survive.

I've known elephants with broken hearts, others with depression.

Elephants seek food elsewhere if their route is blocked, and raiding crops and grain stores brings them into conflict with people, often resulting in deaths on both sides.

People are so difficult. Give me an elephant any day.

There is no need for use of torture instruments such as ankush for controlling the elephants. We can do it with the help of verbal commands.

Save the elephants, and then you save the forest - and then you save yourself.

You can cut a tree down, and it grows back. Once a species goes, it's gone forever.

I was probably spoilt, if I'm being totally honest.

My flat is a bit like an oriental bazaar. It's filled with the oddest objects from all my travels, and you can't really move in it. I love collecting antiques and often spend weekends driving around bric-a-brac markets.

I'd always thought hurricanes were romantic, with pretty feminine names like Celestine.

When you look at elephant herds that are nonstressed, the males are never around. They mate, they go; they're loners.