Thai elephant becoming extinct!
The elephant is the revered national symbol of Thailand. Its sacred image can be seen throughout the Kingdom as testimony to its central role in the history and culture of the Thai people. Yet this beloved animal is an endangered species and unless action is taken, the Asian elephant may be lost in Thailand forever.
A century ago there were over 100.000 elephants in Thailand. Today estimates of the remaining elephants vary from 5.000 to as low as 2.500.
The population of the wild elephant has suffered from diminished habitat. The forest area in Thailand has fallen from 80% in 1957 to approximately 20% in 1992. The wild herds have also suffered the predations of illegal poaching.
To protect the country’s remaining forests, the Thai government banned the logging industry in 1989. An unavoidable consequence of this action was to put the elephants an their mahouts out of work. From being the main source of income for the mahouts and their families, the elephant with its prodigious appetite has become a serious financial burden.
Faced with poverty, the mahouts had to find other means of income. There are three choices for the mahouts to earn money with his elephant:
• Begging from tourists in cities or other tourist areas;
• Illegal logging;
• Tourist camps with elephant riding and shows.
For centuries elephants in Thailand have been migrating during the dry season to the cities, where a lot of tourists and therefore food can be found. However, the last fifteen years, elephants can be found on the streets of Bangkok all year round. Businessmen buy elephants and rent them out to the mahouts, otherwise jobless people who use the elephants to generate an income.
Begging from tourists has turned into a very lucrative trade. Although the Thai government has recently prohibited elephants on the streets, the animals are still regularly brought into the city by their keepers, or mahouts, who encourage tourists to give them money in return for being able to feed their charges a few leaves.
The street elephants spend their days trying to find shelter in a concrete jungle, and spend their nights performing for tourists. Many of these elephants are worked to exhaustion for over twelve hours a day. They sleep under highway-bridges, eat grass polluted by exhaust fumes, often get hit by traffic, even given drugs to make them work longer and forget about their misery. This leads to irreparable health damage, misery and early death.
The Thai elephants are suffering on their way to extinction. Our project purpose is to help Thailand to get their elephants of the street and reverse the process of extinction.
