Edited original comment for being too inflammatory.
It is too easy to paint the poachers as an easy comic book villain. The truth is somewhat more complicated. People who are poaching elephants are probably not flying in from developed areas of the country/world to go poach elephants. They are probably locals. Now, given that elephants live in generally undeveloped areas, the people are living in proximity to undeveloped areas.
Also, most likely, the people living in close proximity to the elephant's habitat are not in general rich people who like the view, but are probably the economically marginalized trying to eke out a living and probably are heavily involved in subsistence farming. When you are trying to feed your family, other concerns become secondary. In addition, having elephants around can be very destructive to your farming (one or 2 elephants could probably destroy a year's worth of a family's crops). Thus, people who are forced to live in close proximity to elephants probably do not view them through the same lens as we do, and view them rather as pests.
Now think of this scenario, you are a young man in this situation. A few years ago, some elephants ate your crops and your family really suffered. However, you are not allowed to hurt them because your government (dominated by elites and relatively far away) was influenced by white people from Europe and America to legally protect these animals. Then someone comes to you, provides you with guns and ammo and says that if you kill these animals they will pay you several years worth of what you would make farming. You can use that money to buy medicine for your parents and send your brother and sister to school in the city. In addition, you can stick it to "the man" (government) who is corrupt and caters only to the rich urban needs and not the poor rural people.
Suddenly, poachers don't look so inhuman do they?