There’s something irresistible and exotic posing next to three-feet tall baby elephants. They are cuddly, and they don’t roam our streets back home everyday, so a photo-opportunity with these cute creatures is often a must-do on a traveler’s list. But there is a dark side to this tourist trade that is enough to send PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of the Animals) activists into demonstration delirium.
Baby elephants, for them to survive in concrete jungles, have to be brutalized as they are separated from their mothers and their natural habitat to withstand the rigors of performing street shows and tricks. When they become too unfit to be entertainers, they and their “mahouts”(trainers) are reduced to begging, a sort of dishonorable dismissal from service.
You can do your share to slow down the involvement of elephants in the tourist trade. It would be somewhat impossible to eradicate elephants posing with tourists (or the other way around), but you can do your share in getting elephants back to where they naturally belong.
Elephant Nature Park (Photo by Christian Haugen)
Here are Thailand’s top 4 elephant reserves where you can spend time in social interaction with these gentle beasts, or better yet, volunteer to help them nurse back to health.
Chiang Mai
Mae Tang, better known as Elephant Nature Park, prides itself in rehabilitating elephants in their natural setting. Given the naturally mountainous terrain of Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai is well-positioned to provide home to elephants which were recovered from their abusive mahouts.
Lampang
The Thai Elephant Conservation Center, about 90 minutes away from Chiang Mai, is better known for its Elephant Hospital. Unlike Chiang Mai’s reserve, the conservation center here in Lampang focuses more on treating sick animals who have been injured because they stepped on Cambodian landmines or mistreated by owners or mahouts or simply sick.
Surin
About 7 hours drive northeast of Bangkok, Surin, otherwise famous for its spicy cuisine, rural setting and farming traditions, is well on its way in creating an elephant sanctuary. In Surin, the Elephant Nature Foundation aims to repatriate city elephants to their natural setting so they live with the rest of their herds and in effect live elephant lives, instead of doing mushy tricks or begging on the streets. Volunteers in ENF are needed in rehabilitating displaced elephants as tourists are in helping boost conservation funds. Hence, your volunteer experience here can be more hands on as you will be an active participant in taking care of the elephants should you so choose.
Kanchanaburi
The Elephant Conservation Network works in close ties with the Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary to understand the dynamics of human-elephant conflicts, and more important, to ensure that sustainable natural habitats are preserved for the well-being of elephants. Wanting to take advantage of 5 million yearly tourists to the province, the ECN is slowly warming up to the idea of conservation tourism, with more emphasis on tourism as a tool to promote animal welfare awareness and activism.
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Article by Chris
Chris had a passion to contribute to society especially to fellow travelers like himself. He also had a passion for Southeast Asia and frequently visited. While brainstorming ideas, he decided that a travel blog dedicated to his favorite countries, Thailand and Singapore, could be more beneficial than any guidebook. Only one year later did the blog’s success bring in more writers, more countries, and more readers.
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