wowpow
May 14th, 2006, 14:00
"Saving jumbo, Tourist volunteers care for elephants at Chiang Mai shelter, The Bangkok Post, Story and photo by Anucha Charoenpo, Chiang Mai
British backpacker Nadia Kudiarskgj never thought that her long-awaited journey to Southeast Asia would see her staying at an elephant shelter in the northern province of Chiang Mai, where she works as a volunteer mahout. Every day, the 27-year-old former fitness trainer from London gets up early in the morning to prepare food for the jumbos, feed them, and accompany them to the Mae Taeng river for their morning bath. Ms Kudiarskgj has been staying at the 200-rai Elephant Nature Park for three weeks so far, and plans to extend her stay for a month as she has fallen in love with the elephants and the relaxing atmosphere at the park. Like many young westerners, Ms Kudiarskgj has always dreamed of spending some time in Southeast Asia. After saving enough money, she quit her job and headed for Thailand, the first destination on her trip.
In Chiang Mai, some western tourists recommended that she visit the Elephant Nature Park, where she could learn how to take care of the endangered Asian elephants. Located about 60km from Chiang Mai's Mae Taeng district, the elephant park belongs to Sangduen Chailert, who was recognised in Time magazine's Hero of Asia 2005 awards for her dedication to elephant conservation. The elephant park was established about a decade ago in a bid to preserve the elephants, whose population has been steadily shrinking, and to take care of injured jumbos.
Ms Sangduen recently launched a volunteer programme, under which tourists are assigned to help local mahouts look after almost 30 elephants in the park. The programme costs the foreign volunteers $261 (about 9,868 baht) per week. The fee covers meals, lodgings and the elephants' food. The programme is also open to Thai tourists and students, who are eligible to join the "elephant homestay" free of charge for as long as they want. During their stay, the foreign volunteers are required to do work including cleaning up the park's compound, and feeding and bathing the animals. "It's great fun living with the jumbos in this park. I have learned a lot about elephant behaviour," Ms Kudiarskgj said, adding that she planned to raise funds for Ms Sangduen's elephant conservation work when she returned to England.
Ms Sangduen said the elephant park can accommodate a maximum of 30 tourists per week. And it is fully booked almost year-round. Most of the tourists are from western countries, particularly Canada. This reflects the fact that foreigners are more interested in elephant conservation than local people, she said. Foreign tourists also donate huge sums of money to help the elephants at the park, which has to pay around 400,000 baht a month for the elephants' food and employees' salaries, she said. "We rely mainly on foreign donations. The park has never received financial assistance from the Thai government," said the 45-year-old elephant conservationist.
The park currently has 28 elephants, mostly retired, which have recovered from work-related accidents, such as stepping on landmines while hauling logs along the Thai-Burmese border. Some elephants had serious injuries or became disabled due to inhumane treatment at private elephant shelters, where they were forced to entertain tourists, said Ms Sangduen, dubbed "Thailand's elephant woman" by Time magazine. She said so far the park has spent at least 200,000 baht buying badly-treated elephants from elephant shelters nationwide, mostly from the northeastern province of Surin. The jumbos were transported to Chiang Mai, where they underwent health check-ups and medical treatment before being allowed to roam freely in her jungle-like park. Ms Sangduen also set up a "Jumbo Express Team" to provide free medical treatment for sick elephants in the northern provinces.
At present, there are around 2,000 elephants left in the country. About 500 of them are captive elephants in private elephant shelters and zoos, and the other 1,500 are wild elephants living mainly in the northern and western forest areas, said Ms Sangduen, who has been researching wild elephant behaviour for more than a decade. "Elephants belong in the wild. They should not be raised in captivity or trained for commercial purposes," she said.She said she had received numerous threats from private elephant shelter operators and mahouts, who use the elephants to haul logs, as a result of her campaign against the inhumane treatment of elephants. But Ms Sangduen said she was not discouraged by the threats, and vowed to continue pressing the government to come up with sound elephant conservation schemes to save the creatures from extinction."
Bangkok Post 15th May 2006
British backpacker Nadia Kudiarskgj never thought that her long-awaited journey to Southeast Asia would see her staying at an elephant shelter in the northern province of Chiang Mai, where she works as a volunteer mahout. Every day, the 27-year-old former fitness trainer from London gets up early in the morning to prepare food for the jumbos, feed them, and accompany them to the Mae Taeng river for their morning bath. Ms Kudiarskgj has been staying at the 200-rai Elephant Nature Park for three weeks so far, and plans to extend her stay for a month as she has fallen in love with the elephants and the relaxing atmosphere at the park. Like many young westerners, Ms Kudiarskgj has always dreamed of spending some time in Southeast Asia. After saving enough money, she quit her job and headed for Thailand, the first destination on her trip.
In Chiang Mai, some western tourists recommended that she visit the Elephant Nature Park, where she could learn how to take care of the endangered Asian elephants. Located about 60km from Chiang Mai's Mae Taeng district, the elephant park belongs to Sangduen Chailert, who was recognised in Time magazine's Hero of Asia 2005 awards for her dedication to elephant conservation. The elephant park was established about a decade ago in a bid to preserve the elephants, whose population has been steadily shrinking, and to take care of injured jumbos.
Ms Sangduen recently launched a volunteer programme, under which tourists are assigned to help local mahouts look after almost 30 elephants in the park. The programme costs the foreign volunteers $261 (about 9,868 baht) per week. The fee covers meals, lodgings and the elephants' food. The programme is also open to Thai tourists and students, who are eligible to join the "elephant homestay" free of charge for as long as they want. During their stay, the foreign volunteers are required to do work including cleaning up the park's compound, and feeding and bathing the animals. "It's great fun living with the jumbos in this park. I have learned a lot about elephant behaviour," Ms Kudiarskgj said, adding that she planned to raise funds for Ms Sangduen's elephant conservation work when she returned to England.
Ms Sangduen said the elephant park can accommodate a maximum of 30 tourists per week. And it is fully booked almost year-round. Most of the tourists are from western countries, particularly Canada. This reflects the fact that foreigners are more interested in elephant conservation than local people, she said. Foreign tourists also donate huge sums of money to help the elephants at the park, which has to pay around 400,000 baht a month for the elephants' food and employees' salaries, she said. "We rely mainly on foreign donations. The park has never received financial assistance from the Thai government," said the 45-year-old elephant conservationist.
The park currently has 28 elephants, mostly retired, which have recovered from work-related accidents, such as stepping on landmines while hauling logs along the Thai-Burmese border. Some elephants had serious injuries or became disabled due to inhumane treatment at private elephant shelters, where they were forced to entertain tourists, said Ms Sangduen, dubbed "Thailand's elephant woman" by Time magazine. She said so far the park has spent at least 200,000 baht buying badly-treated elephants from elephant shelters nationwide, mostly from the northeastern province of Surin. The jumbos were transported to Chiang Mai, where they underwent health check-ups and medical treatment before being allowed to roam freely in her jungle-like park. Ms Sangduen also set up a "Jumbo Express Team" to provide free medical treatment for sick elephants in the northern provinces.
At present, there are around 2,000 elephants left in the country. About 500 of them are captive elephants in private elephant shelters and zoos, and the other 1,500 are wild elephants living mainly in the northern and western forest areas, said Ms Sangduen, who has been researching wild elephant behaviour for more than a decade. "Elephants belong in the wild. They should not be raised in captivity or trained for commercial purposes," she said.She said she had received numerous threats from private elephant shelter operators and mahouts, who use the elephants to haul logs, as a result of her campaign against the inhumane treatment of elephants. But Ms Sangduen said she was not discouraged by the threats, and vowed to continue pressing the government to come up with sound elephant conservation schemes to save the creatures from extinction."
Bangkok Post 15th May 2006