As the COVID-19 virus keeps spreading around the world, countries had to close their borders, and citizens asked to stay inside their homes. The coronavirus pandemic may be affecting humans, but the elephants in northern Thailand seem to have benefited from the crisis.
Without knowing when the pandemic will finally be over, the Maesa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai closed its doors to visitors. The camp removed the huge metal and wooden seats that are strapped to the elephants back throughout the day, for good.
Once the camp opens up again, they don’t intend to make its seventy-eight elephants wear those heavy carriages anymore. Instead, they want the animals to roam freely throughout the campgrounds, where visitors can feed them bananas or just watch them in their natural habitat.
According to the camp’s director, Anchalee Kalampichit, this is the first time in 44 years that the elephants haven’t worn the carriages in the daytime. “Since we entered the business in 1976, riding on the elephants has always been the favorite activity of tourists. But because the coronavirus has spread, there have been fewer tourists. Eventually, the government ordered us to close, so we have removed the chairs to liberate the elephants,” she said.
Kalampichit said:
We are not planning to put the seat supports back on the elephants, even if we can operate again. We want to change the style of the place and find more natural ways that the public can enjoy the elephants. We will welcome tourists to enjoy learning about the elephants’ ways of life naturally instead of using them to entertain the tourists.
With no income from tourists, the camp owners will have substantial monthly expenses of caring for the elephants and hundreds of staff members. Kalampichit estimates it would cost about five million baht (£140,000/$174,000) to cover the expenses. “We will not leave anyone behind and will try to take the best care of the elephants for as long as we can. Now we are planting vegetables for the staff to eat as one of the ways we can reduce the expenses,” she added.
Dozens of elephant parks across Thailand have been forced to shut down. In Chiang Mai alone, there are ninety-three camps. The Thai Elephant Alliance Association’s president, Theerapat Trungprakan, said that if the government doesn’t offer financial support to such parks to care and feed for their elephants, many may be forced back into illegal logging operations or on the streets.
