New Delhi, (AP) The killing of elephants could dramatically increase in Asia if a worldwide ban on ivory trading is lifted, Indian officials and environmentalists warned Saturday.

Three African countries - Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia - are seeking

to loosen a 7-year-old worldwide ban on the sale of tusks and other elephant products so they can sell their ivory stockpiles to Japan.

In anticipation that the ban will be eased for some African countries at an international meeting next month, elephant poaching is rising and many traders in India are stockpiling ivory in hopes of illicitly selling it as an African product, three Indian scientists said.

The ban on ivory trading has been effective in keeping elephants alive in India, said the scientists, who released a report Saturday on the status of the Indian elephant.

After the ban was imposed in 1990, the number of elephants killed in India each year dropped from 100 to less than 50.

But earlier this year, in a sign the trend may be reversing, 30 elephants were killed during a two-month period in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, said one of the report's co-authors, environmentalist Vivek Menon.

Unlike African elephants, where both males and females have tusks, only the Asian males have tusks. The killing of males could lead to a sudden in elephant birth rates, said Raman Sukumar, a biologist at the Asian Elephant Conservation Center in Bangalore and another co-author of the report.

In one game reserve in southern India, there was just one male for every 120 female elephants, Sukumar said.

India's representative to the June 8-18 meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species said India will oppose any easing of the ban.

"But it is the views of the African countries and the European Union that will prevail," said S.C. Dey of India's Environment Ministry.

With 175,000 of Africa's 580,000 elephants, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia argue that their elephant populations have exploded over the past few years and the ban is no longer justified.

Elephants devour tons of food daily and in abundance, their search for food leads them to villages where they often destroy agricultural crops and in extreme cases, kill human beings.

The countries lobbying to ease the ban say they will use the proceeds from the sale of their ivory reserves and raw tusks obtained from culling for conservation.

Environmentalists and some African countries, including Kenya, want the ban to remain, saying that renewed trading in ivory would give the go-ahead to rampant poaching.

The ban on ivory trade was imposed in 1990 by 114 countries, including 35 African countries with elephant populations. Some Asian countries including Japan, want the trade reopened so their craftsmen can obtain ivory, Dey said.

In Asia, ivory is highly sought by artisans to carve and - ground into a fine powder and mixed with alcohol - is widely reputed to be an aphrodisiac.

In addition to the proposal on ivory trading, organizers of the 138-nation CITES meeting said lower protections on 20 other plants and animals and stepped-up protections on 75 species will be considered at the meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe.

One delicacy that may become even rarer if conservationists achieve their goal is caviar. They are seeking to limit trade in the sturgeon that produces the tiny black eggs to keep the fish from extinction.

Uncontrolled poaching of fish for its eggs near the Caspian Sea threatens to eradicate the fish altogether, the conservationists say.