Elephant nature park

 

The elephant is the symbol of Thailand. You see them in the temples, in art work, jewelry and beautiful wood carvings, which is what makes it such a sad story to hear of their true fate in this country.

An elephant family protecting the baby 

Historically, the elephant has been viewed, and hence treated, like common livestock used for work; mostly hauling heavy lodes up and down steep hillsides, especially for logging. It is also not unusual to see elephants “begging” in the noisy, polluted streets of Bangkok or Chiang Mai, where their owners rack in the cash from excited tourists who pay to get close to them and pose for pictures. In addition, the tourist industry relies heavily on these animals to provide sightseers the opportunity to ride them or trek up a mountainside.

Since they provide a source of income for a family, they have been tragically tortured to make them submissive to humans. The traditional practice of “taming” an elephant employs a variety of forms of abuse such as beatings, stabbing them with nails at the ends of sticks, withholding food, water and sleep and other heart wrenching methods, to break their spirit. This happens to virtually all elephants that are in captivity and can result in injuries and blindness.

 She has a broken hip as a result of a logging accident 

 Elephants love bananas

To add to the plight of these animals, was the demise of the logging industry in the late 1980′s. This left the animal without a “job” so to speak, so many were abandoned or are now being used for street begging and the tourist industry. Also, due to the ravaging of the rain forest, the wild elephants habitat has shrunk dramatically and they have needed to forage for food closer to villages and farms and may get shot. (I think this is similar to the deer in the U.S. but can you imagine an elephant eating your tulips!!)

Our guide Jody with fellow volunteer Francois 

 Squash ready to be wased and cut for feeding 

 Bath time with Amy, Paul and Julia 

While there are a number of tourist elephant interaction offerings in this area, we chose to visit the Elephant Nature Park located 35 miles north of Chiang Mai. A very special woman, fondly known as “Lek” (Thai for short) Chailert, created this sanctuary for abused, neglected, injured, abandoned and orphaned elephants in the 1990′s. Here these magnificent animals are treated with respect and dignity and can live as close to their wild habitat as possible. Each elephant brings with it a sad story, but thanks to Lek’s passion and vision they can live out their last days in freedom and without fear.

 Dogs in our living room!

To maximize our exposure, we opted to stay overnight at the site. Visitors are able to feed the elephants and bathe them in the river twice a day. The overnight visitors take a 3-hour walk in the reserve area to observe the animals as they roam. Jody, our guide for this walk, provided us with an abundant amount of information about elephants in general, as well as some humorous tidbits of the unique personalities and behaviors of some of the ones there. Her love of these animals was very apparent!

 Jokia: Blinded from being stabbed in the eyes

The Elephant Nature Park does not stop at elephants though! On the premises, freely roaming around, are 65 dogs and a few cats! These have also been abandoned or injured but have found a safe home there. Dogs, dogs everywhere did not make for a quiet night. Barking, baying and howling at those noises in the night….