Elephant ivory out of Muziris

Evidence for the existence of Muziris is sparse but well-documented in a few fragments remaining from the time. As well as the Periplus, the sailors' notebook which numbered Muziris amongst a number of ports, the Muziris Papyrus documents a cargo from India belonging to an Alexandrian merchant. It originates from the second century CE.
The document lists pepper and spices traded out of Muziris on board a Roman merchant ship called the Hermapollon. A valuation is given of three-quarters of the cargo which fits well with the list in the Periplus of the commodities which were exported from the city.
A portion of the cargo was made up of ivory, both low-quality trimmings taken to reduce the weight of the tusks of fighting elephants, and high quality, complete tusks, often taken from elephants which had died in captivity. At this time, Africa was not a significant source of ivory, but Pliny the elder states that by his time the male Indian elephant is often born with very small tusks, or none at all. This is true today, a fact often put down to the poaching of the ivory-bearing tuskers from the forests, but it seems that the elephants of the south were already protecting themselves by genetically reducing their ivory-bearing capabilities!

Mamalapuramn Tamil Nadu

It is likely that the ivory shipped in the Hermapollon was local, the Chera kings controlling the rich forests of the Western Ghats, where the elephant thrived. The indigenous forest-dwellers hunted elephants for their meat and their ivory, which made its way to Muziris.
The trade in ivory is a complex one, and by the time of the Periplus in the 9th Century Africa had overtaken India as a source of fine-quality tusks. The African elephant has larger tusks than the Indian, although smaller tusks were often shipped from animals which had been killed to eat or in the constant struggle against crop raiding.
The trade in ivory continues in spite of its ban under the CITES convention of 1989. There are concerns that the population of elephants in some areas is drastically skewed towards female herds where the males are lacking the socialisation necessary to integrate them into the sophisticated "family" structures.

Today it is rare to see a wild elephant with large tusks. Older animals, working in temples, do often have magnificent tusks but these are getting rarer as the elephants die off.