4th Jan/ Day 1

Vegetarian food, unfortunately, isn’t really my thing – no matter how savoury it looks, the lack of meat was starting to get to me by the end of the day. Then again, I remind myself, I’ve had more than my fair share of interacting with, well, not quite chunks of meat, but one of the most majestic, yet gentle-natured, of animals – elephants.

When the first elephant came into view, we knew something was not quite right – its right hind leg was bent at an awkward angle, and the beast seemed reluctant to put any weight on it. Jen, our guide, mentioned that this one had been mistreated badly by its previous owners, and the Elephant Nature Park came to the rescue – at the cost of 600000 Baht per head. The young and healthy cost substantially more. And that’s not all – Jen muses that many owners can afford the elephant, but not the food – each elephant requires 100kg of food (800 baht, in monetary terms) per day. Given that there were 66 elephants in the park, it’s a marvel they’re doing so well.

Jen was very knowledgeable; every time we passed by an elephant, Jen would tell us what had happened to it – one had a flower in its right ear to cover up the hole punctured by its owner’s hook, while another had gone completely blind due to prolonged exposure to bright lights in the circus. It’s really sad to see them in such a state, but, as Jen explains, there’s not much they can do to stop these practices. Why? Politico-economic interests, basically. Tourist revenue is a big driver of the Thai economy, and has to keep on flowing. Activities such as elephant rides – which can be really bad for the elephant, because they weren’t meant to support such weight, and suffer constant chafing from the chair strapped onto them – form the highlights of many tourist packages. There were good news, however – many camps have indeed improved their practices, to a degree. We leave with a big question mark over government intervention as a possible solution for this problem.

We then went on to visit the big boys, who were separated from the ladies. It’s biologically wired into their system, in case you were wondering (as I was). There was this particular male with giant tusks – the type that would fetch a good price in the black market. Jen expressed the worry that it would be a juicy target for poachers, once released (in 2 year’s time) into the wild, and hence, their best efforts to find a best jungle for him to roam free in. First, they would need to conduct research, buy the surrounding land, then condition the animal to that surrounding through the choice of feed, for example. It’s a lot of work, but it’s definitely worth the while. Freedom is priceless. Or is it? They live a relatively easy life here, after all, and probably wouldn’t live past 50 outside the park.

Before Jen left us for the day, he mentioned the high turnover rate for mahouts (elephant rangers). Many were new, and barely spoke Thai – most belonged to the poor tribes of Burma. Poor elephants – they have to get used to their new ‘best friend’ ever so often. Imagine if that had happened to any of us – it would cause us so much stress. Let’s add to that the fact that the average quality of a mahout is in decline – many experienced mahouts have since left the profession, and some of the new ones appear to be there by circumstance – as well as the length of time it takes to trust an elephant to completely trust a mahout – 2 years – and we have a problem. A long-term, systemic problem. Should we, and how can we fix this? Should we just focus on the low-hanging fruit to better elephant welfare?

Most of our worries were washed away by the beautiful night sky (unfortunately, as the stars wouldn’t show up in the photo album, we didn’t take any photos). You won’t see anything like that back in Singapore, with its towering concrete jungles and flashy neon lights. It’s always nice to see nature in its beauty. Then again, we have already seen much beauty all around us, haven’t we? The beauty of elephants, the guides at the park, our group mates, just to mention a few.