When I was 18, I went to a local travel agent with my best friend and we booked the typical, mediocre holiday to Thailand that is every Aussies introduction to travelling & Asia!
A holiday we both learnt so much from and would never do again.
I am ashamed and I still feel a lot of guilt to this day about how naive and unprepared we were for all aspects of this trip. We hadn't done any research except to buy the lonely Planet book for Thailand, of course we barely read it. We had no idea what we wanted to see or do and we had no thought about if we were supporting responsible tourism. We let the travel agent plan and book everything, we were just along for the ride, though no less guilty.
In that holiday we went to the infamous Tiger Temple that was run by the Buddhist monks and posed with giant tigers that had chains and collars on. At the time it was a very hot day, the tigers were very sleepy and put up minimal resistance to the petting and posing. We also saw lots of animals kept in small, squalid enclosures. We both had a bad feeling about the place. But surely if it was such a huge local attraction, run by monks & our travel agent booked it, it should be ethical ? We would later find out, our once in a lifetime opportunity to get close to these beautiful animals will forever be tainted by the fact they led a life of suffering. The Tiger Temple was raided by Thai police who discovered 40 tiger cub bodies frozen and embalmed in formaldehyde, victims of the illegal wildlife trade. We were very happy to hear that the tigers were confiscated and the temple was shut down. I pray that the tigers have a better life now.
Another significant thing that happened on this holiday was an elephant ride, feeding elephants and an elephant entertainment show. Nothing screams Thailand like a selfie from the back of an elephant! Another thing we came to regret. The elephant tourism such as elephant rides & entertainment shows is just plain cruelty. WAP (World Animal Protection) has carried out research on thousands of captive elephants in Thailand revealing that more than three quarters were living in severely cruel conditions. They are kept confined in small concrete pens, chained and separated from their young and with minimal socialisation. They are beaten frequently and the training that they undergo to learn tricks such as painting, throwing darts or balls and dancing is very harsh. Even the Mahouts in Thailand have a very bleak & cruel existence. According to this report Thailand uses twice as many elephants in tourism than all other countries combined & over a 5 year period, the number of tourists visiting this country has doubled, with 40% of the tourists planning to ride an elephant. With such a demand for elephant tourism and only a certain amount of elephants already bred in captivity this has resulted in a vast majority of wild elephants being captured to provide this service and brought into Thailand from Myanmar.
With so much money to be made it will take a long time before the industry in Thailand makes any dramatic changes and this will only come after the tourism industry demands this change. I am happy to read this is slowly happening. In 2016 Tripadvisor stopped issuing tickets for any wild animal encounter such as elephant rides & 160 different global travel companies have also committed to stop selling and promoting elephant entertainment & elephant rides.
There is an obvious need for global education, regulation & protection of all wild animals featured in tourism. I think if more people were aware of what that selfie with the animal meant, they wouldn't do it.
Is Chitwan National Park in Nepal Different to other places?
I am a lot older than I was when I first went to Thailand and I am determined not to make the same mistakes and only support ethical, responsible & environmental tourism. I spent a long time researching, reading tons of conflicting material and having a mental tug of war if I even wanted to come to Chitwan.
One thing that helped me decide was the fact that Chitwan National Park is not just about the elephant tourism or the elephant safari. You can of course come to Chitwan and not do these activities. I think in this instance an exception can be made because of the huge conservation effort, regulations for the elephant tourism and the funding that the tourism brings into the park which is the main supporting factor and the reason why other highly endangered species are alive today.
There are a lot of elephants in Chitwan, most are government or privately owned and funded to do patrols along the borders of the national park, deterring poachers & monitoring collared rhinos and tigers. The elephant patrols through the jungle reach places safely, that vehicles and people simply could not get to and have been used this way for decades providing one of the worlds most successful anti poaching programs. Elephant, tiger and rhino populations in Chitwan are on the increase and there have been 3 years of ZERO poaching !
Elephant patrols like this also reduce the human-wildlife conflict.
These elephants you will see walking along the streets of Chitwan with their Mahouts, standing next to houses or crossing the river into the National Park as the sun comes up. A lot of these elephants will never have tourists on their back.
The elephants and mahouts that do take tourists for safari rides in the national park have some restrictions they need to abide by & in this regard are years ahead of the dismal standard of the tourism industry in Thailand.
Did you know there is a president for the united elephant cooperation in Nepal ? his name is Deepak Bhattarai. He is responsible for some of the dramatic changes in the elephant tourism industry and refining some of the restrictions already in place, making it better for the elephants.
The elephants are not allowed anymore than 4 people on their backs at once and are only allowed to do 2 hour trips, twice a day. Previously they could do up to 5 trips per day! The elephants start working once they turn 10 and are retired when they turn 20. The mahouts are no longer allowed to use a metal hook to discipline an elephant, only a wooden stick. They are also changing the traditional method of 'breaking in' the calves & 2 calves have been successfully raised using the new methods. There is also a Mahout of the year award that goes out to the mahout that looks after his elephant the best and uses the new methods and abides by the restrictions.
Unfortunately there will always be a factor for greed and some privately owned elephants are taken out for longer or more frequent trips around the buffer zone of the national park. These elephant safari's are not essential for tourist safety in the buffer zones of the national park, there is a minimal chance you will be in a position where a wild animal will attack you. Tom & I did 2 walking safaris, totalling 5 hours in these sections and never felt threatened by the wildlife who are more scared of humans than we are of them.
Our experience with the elephants -
The first afternoon we arrived in Chitwan we went to meet an elephant called Pinky and feed her a bunch of banana's. Pinky is 8 years old, she was bred in captivity in India before coming to Chitwan where she met & bonded with her mahout. They will stay together for the rest of their lives. Pictured here, she is standing under her shelter behind his family house. If separated for too long, pinky becomes distraught. Their bond is complex & they rely on each other for survival. She is best described as loving, excitable & sometimes naughty. She seemed to be in excellent spirits and health while we were there. I couldn't see any evidence such as scars, from her having received any beatings or trauma. She did have a chain wrapped between her front legs & a rope teether on one of her hind legs that seemed to have decent length and was secured to her shelter. I enquired about this and I was told the chains are put on when she's going to have visitors, she gets really excited about visitors with banana's and has previously knocked people over with her trunk. During the day she is not tied up but of a night time she needs the rope to prevent her wandering off. She lives quite close to the river bank and the threat of wild bull elephants is a real risk to Pinky.
All of this seemed very reasonable to me, after all we put muzzles, harnesses and leashes on dogs, stable horses of a night time.
On the third day we were at Chitwan we went for an Elephant back safari. All of our activities were included in our package & despite all my reading, I was still really unsure if I would want to ride an elephant again. As we stood on the platform waiting for the elephant to walk over I asked our guide how many rides she had done that day & he replied only 1 in the morning. When she arrived I could see her mahout holding a metal hook and a wooden stick. I asked our guide is he going to use that hook on her and he shook his head, I then asked again how many rides she had done that day, wanting to be 100% clear, his reply was the same. I stood on that platform for a full minute very emotional about my indecision, I even said to Tom "I dont know if I can do this". Eventually I sat down on her back, feeling very emotional and unsure. I decided to try and ask as many questions about her daily life as possible.
He seems very friendly and happy to answer my questions, despite the ominous metal hook and wooden stick he doesn't use either of them on her, nor can I see any evidence that he has recently. They seemed to have a good relationship, he barely had to use his voice to tell her what to do and the few times he did, was because she was reluctant to stop grazing. As she was walking she was snatching trunk fulls of grass, picking up branches and waving them, swishing her tail & flapping her ears, all signs that she is happy. While on her back we made our way into a clearing that contained a mother rhino and her calf, we were able to get really close to them from the protection of the elephants back and watch them graze together. It was a really special moment to be able to see the efforts of the conservation & the funding from the elephant tourism standing right in front of us.
After the ride we went and brought her 2 bunch's of bananas to say thank you, from the front she looked very happy and relaxed, insisting we put the bananas directly into her mouth. I did notice what looked like scarring on the side of her head on the left side which concerned me, she is 15 years old though and it could have happened from anything, not necessarily from humans wielding the metal hook.
It's also worth mentioning that we saw other elephants & mahouts gathered about taking tourists for rides and of the 5 close enough for me to see, none of them had metal hooks with them. All of those elephants as well looked to be happy and healthy.
- Alli
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40501667
https://www.thelongestwayhome.com/blog/nepal/elephant-tourism-in-nepal-is-it-different/
https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/elephant-conservation/travel-guide/elephants-conservation
https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/nepal-marks-zero-rhino-poaching-year-in-2015/
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