Go see the elephant in the wild

Elephant camps

The effects of such efforts are evident in Thailand's elephant camps too. Some camps played the pioneering role in preventing cruelty to elephants and offering elephant-friendly attractions. ChangChill (meaning "relaxed elephants" in Thai) in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, is one such pioneer. Supakorn Tananseth, owner of ChangChill, comes from a family that has worked with and taken care of elephants for generations. In 2018, he attended an animal protection and tourism conference, and realized the potential of the new, ethical tourism model.

In 2019, he closed his camp, then called Happy Elephant Care Valley for several months, to rebuild it into ChangChill, which today is home to six female elephants. In ChangChill, elephants don't carry tourists. Instead, they are allowed to live freely in the woods.

Tourists can watch them from a distance under the direction and watchful eye of tour guides. Wandering freely in the forest, the elephants are led to the camp by mahouts before "lunch time" when they are served bananas, especially prepared herb and salt balls, and other nutritious foods. Travelers can make these balls, and even serve them to the elephants through a food pipe.

In the afternoon, the tourists can watch the elephants bathe in the nearby river, and learn about them from the mahouts, or spend time with members of the local Karen hill tribe to learn about their culture. Without going near them, visitors can see the elephants spending their day in the forest.

Since it opened in May last year, ChangChill has seen a steady growth in tourist numbers.

"Income from serving 160 tourists a month can support the camp, and we are almost fully booked for three months," said a ChangChill tour guide named Goi. The welfare camp benefits both elephants and mahouts, she said.

"Elephants are much happier and healthier. Mahouts have less confrontation with elephants. And since we limit our daily visitor number to 12, mahouts get to enjoy more spare time."

On TripAdvisor, a major tourism platform, ChangChill has won praise from a lot of visitors. A tourist named "frank758" from Sydney said it's really good to see elephants lead a normal life and wished all captive elephants in Thailand could live like the elephants in ChangChill.

The remarks of Audrey Mealia, group head of WAP's wildlife, are especially encouraging: "Since we launched the global campaign to fight against elephant entertainment in 2016, we've seen remarkable changes with an overall drop of more than 10 percent in the acceptability of riding an elephant."

Mealia also said that many camps in Thailand are not providing elephant rides and shows for tourists and instead offering them the chance to see the elephants bathing in rivers or lakes.

"We want to see all the elephants in captivity in Thailand in ... only programs where they are free to interact with each other and form close family bonds, which is so vital to their well-being," she said.

Apart from educating the tourists, Mealia said she also encourages more tour agencies to adopt an alternative approach like what ChangChill has done. "Most people come to realize that this is a much more rewarding experience and camps such as ChangChill are leading the way with this new model," she said.

The future of captive elephants indeed looks encouraging.