Elephants and Tourism, India,SL,Thaild,Borneo,Africa,Vietnam

Thanks to a member of The Elephant Commentator Facebook for this important news.

Focus on Thailand (Bangkok and Phuket island):

Two elephants join Phuket migrant labor force

PHUKET: Two young elephants were approved to work in Phuket this week, bringing the total number of registered pachyderms on the island to 190, which is 14 more than the existing limit set by the Provincial Office in 2003 ...

The two new female elephants, Pooklook, 5, and Thida,10, will be performing at the Siam Niramit theater along with two other elephants already owned by the company ...

Pooklook and Thida are currently at Dream World amusement park in Bangkok, owned by the same parent company.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/arti...ticle16424.html


Difficult to find any info about Dream World Amusement Park in Bangkok - other than it's Disneyesque, was touting elephant rides in 2009, and has "animal shows".

This is Siam Niramit theatre in Phuket -
Kids (and everyone else) will enjoy feeding a pair of friendly elephants and the carnival-style games (where you can win stuffed animals.) The cost of a fruit or vegetable basket for the elephants, as well as the games, is minimal.
The show starts at 8.30pm ....
http://www.phuket.com/nightlife/siam-niramit-phuket.htm

Thanks to a member of TEC Facebook for drawing attention to this article.

Focus on Thailand and Burma:

The agonising blows that expose the evil secrets of Thailand's elephant tourism con: The Duchess of Cornwall's brother tells how baby elephants are brutally starved and tortured

While some are doing good work, the vast majority of elephant camps are commercial enterprises, making money from tourists keen to have their photos taken with the young ones, bathing with the elephants or riding them, or watching them paint.

Some camps even dress up their elephants and have them perform unnatural and demeaning tricks, all in the name of entertainment.

But beyond the happy smiles of tourists posing with elephants, there is a hidden dark reality, of murder, smuggling and torture for the calves on show.

The booming Thai tourist industry is fuelling a huge illegal trade in baby elephants that are taken from the wild in Burma, beaten, starved and tortured to break their spirit before being paraded in front of fee-paying holidaymakers.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-21...l#ixzz21L3LXJRb

Focus on Thailand:

BABY ELEPHANT SMUGGLING EXPOSED premieres on Link TV on Wednesday July 25 (graphic photos in post)

The television report produced by The Ecologist Film Unit, in association with Link TV’s environmental news magazine Earth Focus and the UK-based Elephant Family, documents the illegal cross border trade in endangered wild elephants taking place between Myanmar and Thailand. Demand for elephants largely comes from Thai tourist camps where elephant rides are a widely promoted activity and from the entertainment industry. Capturing elephants from the wild for this trade often involves the killing of mothers and other protective family members with automatic weapons. Calves are subjected to a brutal breaking-in process where they are tied up, confined, starved, beaten and tortured in order to break their spirits. It is estimated that only one in three survives this “domestication” process. The Asian elephant is an endangered species and the capture of wild elephants is a threat to the survival of the wild populations.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021008078

Article and video.

Focus on Thailand:

Tourism driving illegal elephant trade in Burma and Thailand – video

As many as one million British tourists visit Thailand's tourist camps each year, it is estimated, leading to claims that they are unwittingly fuelling this devastating trade.

Campaigners are now calling on the Thai authorities to launch a fresh crackdown on elephant smuggling ahead of the next Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Thailand in March 2013.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012...art-of-comments

Thanks to a member of TEC facebook for alerting us to this worrying incident.

Focus on India:

Complaint against Haryana Tourism for using elephant

Wildlife activists in Agra, Delhi and Haryana had demanded the release of the elephant which had turned aggressive in the mating season.

The Haryana State Tourism had allowed the elephant owner and the manager of Dabchik restaurant to use the pachyderm to entertain people ...

Sensing trouble, the elephant and camel owners have disappeared from the tourist complex.

"The elephant has a microchip, and it belongs to a Delhi-based owner ... The pachyderm could prove a public nuisance and a threat to life. We want the elephant to be shifted to Agra's animal rescue centre at Keitham Lake," Kadyan said.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/haryana/comp...ant_794895.html

The Elephants Have Packed Their Trunks and Are Heading to Hua Hin for the 11th Kings Cup Elephant Polo Tournament

The highly popular King’s Cup Elephant Polo tournament is celebrating its eleventh anniversary in the royal seaside town of Hua Hin from September 12th to September 16th ?and promises to have nail-biting action both on and off the field.?

http://www.etravelblackboardasia.com/artic...polo-tournament

Focus on Cambodia:

Elephant riding in Cambodia: Should you?

In Mondulkiri, Herod adds, the Bunong people aren't seeing much in the way of profits from elephant riding either. Much of the money paid for elephant riding goes to the business interests that make the arrangement, such as guesthouses, travel operators and guides, rather than to the person who owns and cares for the elephant or to the Bunong villagers. "If you care about elephants, don't get taken for a ride," he advises.

http://www.travelfish.org/feature/247

Thanks to a member of TEC Facebook for alerting us to this article:

Focus on Laos:

From Logging to Tourism: A New Deal for Asian Elephants in Laos

Throughout Laos, deforestation is destroying the elephant’s natural habitat. According to a Deutsche Welle report on illegal logging in Laos, only 40 percent of the country remains covered in forest. What does this mean for the elephants? Herds get trapped in patches of forest or “green islands” surrounded by farmland and urban development. Migration routes are blocked. The food supply is insufficient to support these herds and since they are unable to leave, inbreeding occurs, leading to genetic diseases and weaker populations.

http://www.thetravelword.com/2012/04/11/fr...phants-in-laos/

6 interesting points at the end of the article about what to look for when visiting an elephant camp.

Focus on Thailand:

Short article, but jam-packed with info - a must-read for an overview of Thailand's captive elephants, caught up in the tourist trade.

Captive elephants "suffering"

Most elephants living in captivity across the country suffer from work overload, malnutrition, and poor living conditions, says the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre.

Sittidet Mahasawongkul, head of the Lampang-based centre's elephant hospital yesterday said he and his team recently conducted elephant health check-ups at several elephant camps and found most of the animals were ailing due to poor care.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learni...hants-suffering

Focus on Thailand:

Street Begging Elephant seen in Northern Thailand

A young male elephant, just 10 years old, was seen in Mae Sai, a border town in the far North of Thailand just last week. Both he and his mahouts came from Surin. They live off the main highway several kilometers from Mae Sai town, meaning that the youngster has to endure a very long walk along a road bustling with cars and trucks.

http://www.bring-the-elephant-home.org/201...rn-thailand/en/

Focus on Sri Lanka:

Responsible Elephant tourism in Sri Lanka

No tourist should take part in making an elephant suffer for just a few minutes of pleasure. If you decide to partake in safari back riding, your decision brings blood money to the elephant owner or to the temple it belongs to.

http://www.european-elephant-group.com/fil...hanttourism.pdf

Concise, useful overview.

Focus on Thailand:

Tourism and Jumbo Smuggling Linked

Smuggling such a large mammal should in theory require elaborate planning to avoid the police but in reality traffickers just "do it over a normal road", said wildlife trade researcher Vincent Nijman of Oxford Brookes university.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/33...phant-smuggling

Focus on Thailand:

Crazed Elephant Kills Thai Wife On Rayong Beach

A 56-year-old Thai wife of a farang was fatally gored by a 2-year-old elephant on Maerampung beach. She was buying sugar cane to feed the elephant when it attacked her. The mahout said the hot weather had crazed the normally docile beast. The mahout and the elephant’s owner will be prosecuted by police.

http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2013/03...n-rayong-beach/

Focus on Thailand.

Captive Elephants Escape From Nearby Trekking Camp To Elephant Nature Park

... the sad sight of two young elephants on short chains, no access to water, heads bobbing endlessly in an act of infinite boredom. For the last two weeks or so, these poor elephants have been chained for most of the day, one within 10 feet of our property line ...

http://www.saveelephant.org/blog/captive-e...nt-nature-park/

First escape - 8 February 2013: It seemed that they were desperately looking for protection from any elephant in their path.
Second escape - 12 February 2013: Oh, but ”don’t worry … the elephant’s skin is very thick; this nail stabbing him does not hurt at all.”

Focus on the UK, Burma and Thailand:

EFU film VIDEO: UK tourists fuelling brutal live elephant trade between Burma & Thailand

A new film, produced by the EFU in association with Link TV and the NGO Elephant Family, has uncovered how at least 50-100 elephant calves and young female elephants are removed from their forest homes in Burma each year to be traded illegally to supply tourist camps situated in Thailand ...

As many as one million British tourists visit Thailand's tourist camps each year, it is estimated, leading to claims that they are unwittingly fuelling this devastating trade.

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_anal...a_thailand.html

Focus on South Africa:

Elephant overturns vehicle in Kruger

"It is not yet clear why the elephant turned aggressive, however we would like to appeal to the public to always be on the look-out for these huge animals and try not to get too close whenever they see one approaching on the road," said KNP spokesperson William Mabasa.

He said that tourists should always make sure that there is a safe distance between themselves and wild animals, especially elephants - enough to make a quick getaway if necessary.

http://www.news24.com/Travel/South-Africa/...Kruger-20130415

Thanks to a member of TEC Facebook for the link to this copyright report which contains a photo of the car involved in the incident in the report above.

Focus on South Africa:

South African elephant handler slips off back of elephant and is trampled to death

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa...edd9_story.html

Focus on Thailand:

Elephants never forget the extreme brutality of their handler's 'teaching' methods

To the thousands watching a young elephant painting pictures with its trunk or dancing with dainty footsteps on a Bangkok street, it is a comical scene of man's mastery over a nature.

Tragically, few will realise the horrors these majestic animals suffer before surrendering to their handlers' brusque commands.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/397145...eaching-methods