Thailand's best elephant sanctuaries
Elephant camps help protect these incredible beasts
The elephant is Thailand’s national symbol and just 100 years ago there were an estimated 100,000 of these magnificent beasts in the country. Tamed elephants were traditionally used as a mode of transportation and also in industries such as logging. With a nationwide ban on logging and forest encroachment, that has seen the natural habitats of wild pachyderms destroyed, the number of elephants in Thailand has now dropped to around 3,000.
Around 2,000 of the country’s elephants have been domesticated with many born in captivity. Once elephants have been taken out of the wild they usually form a bond with their trainers, or mahouts, and humans in general and it would be very difficult to set them free again as they would struggle to survive.
When the ban on logging came into effect in Thailand in 1989, many elephant mahouts were forced to take their charges to cities and sell high-priced bananas and sugar cane to tourists. The tourists fed the elephants with the food, with the difference between the purchase and sales price allowing the mahouts to eke out a living. Elephants have now been banned from the streets of Thai cities.
There are quite a few places in Thailand where tourists can see and ride elephants as well as sanctuaries dedicated to the conservation of them. The main Thai tourism centres, including Chiang Mai, Phuket, Krabi and Koh Chang, all have camps where visitors can take a short elephant trek.
Thailand's best elephant sanctuaries offer visitors the opportunity of seeing the animals in their natural environment. Many of the refuges also provide animal lovers with the chance of joining volunteer programmes which allow interaction with elephants and helping out in the running of the facilities. Below is a list of Thailand’s principal elephant refuges.
Top Thai elephant camps
The Anantara Golden Triangle Resort north of Chiang Saen and close to the Laos border provides guests with the chance of joining elephant treks, learning how to control an elephant and bathing with elephants in the nearby Ruak River. See more information here.
Have fun playing in the water with elephants
The Elephant Nature Park was set up in 1995 to provide a home and care facility for rescued elephants. There is a 30-strong herd here with elephants ranging from calves to pensioners. The park itself is in the Mae Taeng Valley outside the northern city of Chiang Mai. The sanctuary maintains an office in the city at 1 Ratmakka Road. The park runs a variety of visitor and volunteer programmes ranging in length from half a day to several weeks. See more information here.
The Elephant Conservation Centre at Hang Chat east of Lampang offers elephant shows, elephant rides and mahout training courses. Although watching shows where elephants paint or kick a big football may seem a bit demeaning for these wonderful creatures, the revenue generated helps support the onsite Elephant Hospital which tends sick and injured pachyderms.
Boon Lott Elephant Sanctuary is close to Sukhothai and is currently home to 13 pachyderms. This refuge is spread over a 200-acre plot and the elephants are permitted to roam freely. Boon Lott offers volunteer programmes in which people pay a flat daily fee for accommodation, food and the opportunity of assisting with the elephants. See more information here.
Surin Project is a recent addition to Thailand’s elephant refuges and is part of a larger government facility. It has 12 elephants and on certain days of the week guest elephants that join the herd for an amble down to the river for bathing. This facility also has volunteer and visitor itineraries from one to seven days long.
Volunteers at the Surin Project help with maintenance of the refuge’s land, planting elephant crops and the elephants’ daily activities. Those on multi-day visits are provided with accommodation in the nearby Baan Tha Klang Village. See more information here.
Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary near Kanchanaburi in central Thailand was the country’s first national park and was established almost five decades ago. The park and the adjacent regions are home to about 150 wild elephants, the biggest concentration of elephants in the country. A small, local foundation works with local farmers and NGOs to ensure that forests in the region and the elephants’ natural habitat are not further reduced by illegal land reclamation.
While not strictly an elephant sanctuary, the luxury tent camp of Elephant Hills in Suratthani’s Panom District is one of the few locations in southern Thailand where people can enjoy an interactive elephant experience. Mahouts teach visitors how to feed and clean the elephants and plant elephant food crops. Bathing with the elephants is also a part of the activities. See more information here.
On Phuket Island, Kok Chang Safari runs elephant treks and allows visitors to feed the elephants. The rides vary from 30 minutes to one hour long and transport people through pristine jungle. See more information here.
blog comments powered by Disqus