Update elephant island
It is low season in Thailand, there is a political conflict, and the Isarn is at its hottest. Because of this there have been few visitors to the island. Fortunately, the village banks have created some financial reserves from a large group in January, so there is little reason to panic. In a month’s time business will pick up again, and the first groups have already been booked. For those doubting whether it is wise to go to Thailand: the area surrounding the elephant island and the Elephant Nature Park is absolutely quiet and safe!
The island has seen some mahout changes. Fortunately, we have been able to find a good new mahout, who has taken up residence at the mahout house. Step by step we are improving this house. Soon we will be installing a water pump: for the mahouts, the elephants, and the planted trees. And together with the district manager we are working on getting electricity cables to the island.
The elephants are having a good life on the island. Even in the dry season the island is still green enough and there’s enough water.
Sri Prae crossed the river by herself a few times, since the water is low at the moment. Her foot is slowly healing. Her new mahout takes care of her foot every day and ordered extra medicine. Noi Nok calmed down a bit but she is still skinny. This is mostly because of her age and her bad teeth. But we raised the elephant food budget anyway. We need to make sure she gets enough and divers enough food. With the villagers we discussed a plan to grow all the elephant food in the village. This way we will safe money, they will have income and the elephants better food. All the banana trees we planted in January are growing well.
On World Environment Day (June 5th 2010) we will be organizing another great tree planting day, with about 200 volunteers to help us. We hope to plant 12,000 seedlings over the weekend, all coming from local nurseries. BTEH buys the seedlings from the villagers, part of the proceeds will go the elephant fund. This year the model will be slightly different: we used to buy the seedlings for a higher price, on condition that the nursery man would also take care of the planted trees. Apparently, this wasn’t done all the time, and the survival rate of the planted trees would go down. This year we will buy the seedlings for a lower price, and then hire villagers to take care of the trees. Of every planted tree, 2 baht will still go to the bank accounts of Sri Prae and Nok Noi.
The Park Plaza hotel in Bangkok has started a project to inform their guests about and collect money for a better future of the street elephants. Since last December the hotel has been selling elephant dolls to its guests. The proceeds (150,000 baht) will be donated to the elephant island project. The employees of the Park Plaza will soon come to the island to help out and see how their donation will be used.
Next month two volunteers will start a project teaching English for at least two months. Chiang Mai University has a volunteer teaching program, and they helped us to create a volunteer project, and to find and train certified teachers. There will be English classes for the homestay families, the children, the mahouts, the local elementary school, and anyone interested in being a local guide to the project, start late May. Through this, the villagers will hopefully be able to run the project themselves someday.
Plenty of activity on and around the island in the next few months. There will be another update soon!
