About an hour an a half north of Chiang Mai, into the mountains, is the Elephant Nature Park, a different sort of elephant attraction because the focus is on the well being of the animals. These are not wild elephants but a lucky handful of those who were rescued from cruel servitude, injured or just neglected and unwanted after the logging trade was finally wound down, just before every last teak tree was removed from the face of Thailand… just in time I hope.
The park is set in beautiful mountain country, similar to rainforest, with a swift flowing mountain river running through. There is accommodation for over night stays and it’s possible to volunteer here. There’s plenty to do… and plenty of “do”. The poo patrol is kept busy. We fed the elephants pumpkins, pineapple and bananas, the latter being the gold currency it seems. They’re very keen on bananas. You can walk with the elephants around the park and wash them in the river, which is great fun. They then have a good scratch and cover themselves in mud which seems counter-productive but then the sun is quite hot here.
The ages range from 60+ to the newest who was only a month old when we saw him. There is no breeding program here, so the birth was a surprise. The mother elephant had been rescued from Burma after having stepped on a land mine (unfortunately common). Half of one of her massive feet had been blown sideways, but soon after arriving in the park, she gave birth. With extensive and on-going veterinary care she is recovering well enough on that foot but of course will never be quite the same again. Good thing she’s in proper care. Some elephants are forced to work the streets of Bangkok, terrified and at risk of being killed by traffic. Please do not give money to people using elephants in this way.
Each elephant in the park has a fellow who accompanies it everywhere all day, a mahout in the old terminology, but the elephants are not beaten here. We saw a video about how wild elephants are tortured to “break them in” for work. Traditionally, they were locked in a crush, restrained and prodded with sharp spikes for days without and water. I didn’t know the full extent of this before. Some of the elephants here have broken bones from work injuries. Another was deliberately blinded in both eyes to force obedience. This was after she had given birth while working on a mountain-side, the newborn tumbling down the slope away from her, still in its sack where it would have perished. She was too distressed to obey commands so blinding her was their response. What a horrible story. Here in the park she has no further problems, thanks to having been adopted by another elephant who is her “seeing eye elephant” so to speak. They are never far away from each other. In fact here they are below..
If you wish to see elephants in Thailand please do go to Elephant Nature Park because the money you spend there goes to the care, feeding and veterinary costs for these magnificent animals. There are also about 300 dogs in the park, rescued from the streets of Bangkok during the 2012 floods.
http://www.elephantnaturepark.org
