Day 1: The Sad Truth Behind the Smiles

4^th January 2016 marked the official start of our research and data collection. Our first stop was the Elephant Nature Park (ENP). Unlike other elephant camps in Chiang Mai where owners will buy elephants and train them to become entertainers for visitors, ENP chooses to rescue, and if not, purchase abused elephants. By providing them with a loving home that they can live in, these elephants do not have to fear that they will be treated inhumanly by human beings – also known as their “bosses”.

In general, each elephant requires about 800baht of food each day. With a total of 66 elephants in the park, and surviving purely based on donations and tourists’ visits, the park still tries its best to provide a conducive environment for their elephants. In terms of tourists’ activities, tourists are only allowed to walk around the park, listen to their tour guides, feed, pat and bathe the elephants.

On the contrary, the elephant camp on the opposite side of the river bank by ENP allows tourists to ride on the elephants. Though this is considered more desirable than placing heavy wooden benches on the elephants to sit on them, it can still be damaging to the elephants’ well-being in the future, for instance injuring their backbone. I am glad that the ENP disapproves of these activities that are unfriendly to the elephants, and encourages tourists to spread the message about protecting the elephants’ welfare.

As we toured around the park and carried out activities planned for us, we also listened to the various stories of some elephants that had been rescued. The story that touched my heart the most was the story of the elephant in the picture below, Ma Jeng Peng.

She was working in a logging area, where hook was placed through her right ear and she was made to pull logs. Due to the heavy weights of the logs, the constant dragging of them eventually caused a permanent hole on her right ear lobe. After being rescued by the ENP, the mahout taking care of her felt uncomfortable looking at the awful gap on her ear all the time – as if symbolising the previous pain and suffering that she had been through. Hence, he placed a flower in her ear to cover up the hole. As the saying goes, “Time heals all wounds.” The flower seems to have the power to make her beautiful, to forget about the pain and agony that she had once been through, to look forward to a lovelier future. Although this might be a very simple act, I was heartened by the fact that he noticed such minor details in which many people would have easily overlooked. I felt comforted to know that Ma Jeng Peng is now in safe hands, and being loved by the people here in the park. 🙂

Here is a photo of another beautiful creature. Can you actually tell that she is blind? Her name is Jokia, and she was stabbed in the eye by her “boss” when she refused to work after losing her baby while logging. I felt extremely horrified upon hearing this news, because it was so cruel of her “boss” to take away her right to see just because he thought that she deserved it for refusing to work. 🙁 There were so many other humane and animal-friendly methods that he could employ to teach her the need to work. Though elephants do not speak the same language as us humans, they are also living things, and will have their own thoughts and feelings. I feel that there is an urgent need to protect them before human beings eventually strip away their well-deserved rights.

Steve Goodier once said that “My scars remind me that I did indeed survive my deepest wounds. That in itself is an accomplishment. And they bring to mind something else, too. They remind me that the damage life has inflicted on me has, in many places, left me stronger and more resilient. What hurt me in the past has actually made me better equipped to face the present.” I do hope that the elephants, under the lovely care of their mahouts, will be able to live lead happy, peaceful lives without fearing that they will be abused again.

It was a great day at the elephant park. 🙂