A major clampdown on elephant/mahout activity in Bangkok has just been announced.  You could now be fined upto £200 for feeding an elephant.

That said, as sorry as you feel for the mahouts, it is commonsense not to support this activity anyway.

Elephants are emphatically not cuddly things out of Jungle Book.  Generally they are rather cantankerous and unpredictable. They become more moody, less predictable in inappropriate environments.

Traffic-filled, highly urbanised, Bangkok is certainly an inapproriate environment.  The elephants become unhealthy, particularly suffering respiratory diseases.  Sudden death is not unknown.

There has been a major incident in Bangkok, when an elephant ran amok.  Presumably smaller incidents are everyday occurrences.

If you want to help elephants and mahouts supporting elephant conservation and repatriation charities is the answer.  Also support elephant-focused tourism projects.

These projects are seen as the great hope in Government circles.  The elephants can’t stay in urban environments.  Their place, and that of their mahouts, in the logging industry is not going to come back.  The mahouts have to have an income.

All this said, I’ve been fairly uncomfortable with the touristic uses of elephants.  That, though, is not to say that elephant centres can’t be fun, with particularly good reports on the centre at Lampang.  People seem to love being a mahout for the day!

Mark Azavedo

Picture Copyright and by kind permission of Tourism Authority of Thailand.