Elephants

ABOUT

Elephants are as central to Southeast Asian history and culture as horses and cattle are to the American West. The temple at Doi Suthep is surrounded by elephant imagery. In some remote places hunters and others traveling through the remaining wild elephant habitat still avoid sleeping on the ground for fear of being trampled.

Chiang Mai is a popular tourist destination. Around Chiang Mai are a number of elephant and tiger ‘sanctuary’ operations. In the past there have been accusations that animals are drugged or mistreated during training so that tourists can interact with them more safely. Some tour companies avoid these sites. It can be difficult to tell which are legitimate.

Elephants in the wild face a number of challenges – poaching, shrinking habitat and human conflict zones. So it may be true that some of these sanctuaries are a better, safer option for some elephants than the being in the wild or in zoos.

Occasionally on backroads one stumbles across working elephants. Estimates are that there are close to 3,000 ‘domesticated’ elephants and another 2,000 to 3,000 in the wild. Some wild elephants remain in neighboring countries of Burma and Laos as well.