DNA research is providing researchers with a map of hot spots for poaching that can help law enforcement to target resources to contain and shut down illegal slaughter of elephants.

With marquee touting performances of 'The Lion King', a 25-ton rock crusher in New York's Time Square pulverized one ton of confiscated elephant ivory Friday morning.

The event was organized by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The wildlife services will be using the residue in a public-education campaign about the elephant poaching crisis.

According to Samuel Wasser, a conservation biologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, these events represent destroying evidence that could be used to save elephants.

He further said that the confiscated tusks represent a treasure trove of DNA, which he uses as biochemical trail markers that lead to specific areas to within 180 miles or less where poachers killed the elephants bearing the tusks.

Wasser's goal is to pinpoint source regions for illicit ivory to focus law-enforcement efforts, as well as to cut through the 'who, us?' posturing on the part of some source countries.

Researchers said almost 434,000 African elephants remain on the continent. 51 tons of ivory seized in 2013 would translate to more than 50,000 elephants killed to extract their tusks, by some estimates.

And if the same situation goes on then elephants in Africa would virtually vanish by the early 2020s.

Dr. Wasser, said, "It's a good thing to send this message, that we're saying that ivory is not worth it anymore. But once the conveyor belt starts to move, they are destroying evidence" locked up in the DNA that can be extracted from the ivory".