Elephants (Britannica)The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) includes three subspecies: the Indian, or mainland (E. maximus indicus), the Sumatran (E. maximus sumatranus), and the Sri Lankan (E. maximus maximus). The range of the Asian elephant extends through the forested parts of Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Malay peninsula to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.