Street elephants in Chiang Mai
Street elephants used to be banned in Chiang Mai. You would only find an occasional begging elephant outside the city limits. Since December 2006 dozens of street elephants can suddenly be found in downtown Chiang Mai, and the police do nothing! Together with Lek I visited the camp where they stay during the day. A report with pictures.
A green spell outside the city, near a lake with plenty of shade. At least it looks better than the camps in Bangkok. I recognize one of the mahouts from when he was begging with a young elephant in Bangkok. He is not the owner of the elephant, but gets paid by the owner to beg. He has probably been spotted too often in Bangkok, and has therefore moved to Chiang Mai. The trip to Chiang Mai, with an elephant in a truck, takes about 16 hours, this in itself is very exhausting and full of stress for an elephant… A dozen or so young animals are around the lake, their feet chained. To show us how well he takes care of them, the mahout takes two elephants into the lake. The front legs remain chained together, which is highly dangerous. They can barely get up, they could just as easily sink in the mire. Lek tries and find out as much as she can about the group, to gain enough information to lodge a protest. When she comments on the chains, the mahout refuses to talk to us any longer.
We leave some bags of cucumbers for the elephants. If only we could take them back to the Elephant Nature Park. That night I see more elephants outside a busy restaurant.
Lek checks the condition of the young elephant.
Mahout camp.
The mahout chases the elephants, with their feet still chained together, into the water.
Chained they can hardly get out of the water.
On the street.
