People weren’t farming because there was a plentiful natural supply that was easy to get at. The costs of acquiring “free range” elephant is already so high tha

People weren’t farming because there was a plentiful natural supply that was easy to get at. The costs of acquiring “free range” elephant is already so high that if you allowed people the cheaper option of farming elephants, it would probably be viable. You don’t have to kill an elephant (or rhino) to take their tusks. Presumably their quality of life would be no worse than that of e.g. cows.