Chains
A life in chains is the norm for many elephants throughout the world. Their spirits broken, their bodies scarred, their lives brutal. Carrying tourists on their back or timber in their trunks and tusks, they live most of their lives unable to move more than 10 metres in any direction, dreaming of the jungles, forests, and families they have been taken from.
By chain and hook
With almost 4,000 elephants in captivity Thailand is home to 75% of Asia’s elephant tourism market. And the situations in which most of them live are horrific.
Kept in chains, their spirits broken as juveniles via the “crush”, made to perform and work for an endless stream of tourists, and beaten with hooks and rods if they fail they live a life of misery and abuse.
But now the tides are changing and people are realising the damage being done to this incredible species on individual, family, and species levels.
The era of the elephant camp, of elephant rides, and elephant logging is hopefully coming to an end and now many of these elephants that spent so much of their lives chained to the concrete are getting the chance to return to the forest.
With new ethical and welfare focused projects arising all over the country, (such as The Green Elephant Sanctuary, Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand,The Mahouts Foundation, and GVI Chiang Mai's Elephant Reintegration project to name a few) they are showing people a better way to experience these unbelievable creatures. Guided by local mahouts, who consider the elephants part of their family, these animals that spent so much of their life in chains have become symbols for change, showing how much can be achieved in a short time.
A new generation
While these individuals may never get the chance to be truly free the seeds of change have been planted, and several elephants have since been born who have never known a life in chains. Elephants who get to grow up surrounded by their families in as natural a way as possible, to become symbols of what can be done and achieved and that there is a better way, true forest elephants.