The Plight of Thailand's Elephants
Shrinking Habitat and Rampant Development Endanger Asian Elephant
Dec 15, 2008
Thailand’s Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are in a precarious position at the start of the twenty-first century. Once the symbol of the nation, adorning the country’s flag until 1917, the elephant is today at the mercy of a shrinking habitat and accelerating development. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warns that the wild Asian elephant is in danger of extinction, while the domestic elephant, classified as livestock under the 1939 Draught Animal Act, is increasingly prone to abuse.
Changing Times for the Asian Elephant
There was a time when life was good for the Thai elephant. In 1900 there were around 100,000 domestic elephants in the country, working as transport for people and cargo and hauling logs. They had long played a central role in Thai culture, as battle tank, road-builder and religious symbol.
As Richard Lair reports in his book Gone Astray – The Care and Management of the Asian Elephant in Domesticity (published in 1997 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), things are very different now. Thailand’s forest cover has gone from 90 percent in 1900 to 29 percent in 1986, while the country’s elephant population is now thought to be between 4-to-5000. Precise figures are hard to come by, but there is no doubt there has been a drastic reduction in elephant numbers in Thailand.
Limited Options for the Domestic Asian Elephant
After a series of heavy floods, logging was banned in Thailand in 1989, and a whole industry was put out of action. The resulting high prices for wood lead many mahouts, or elephant keepers, to risk illegal logging, often dangerously overworking their elephants in the process. It is not unusual for mahouts in illegal logging camps to dope their elephants with amphetamines in an effort to keep them working.
Other options for domestic elephants and their mahouts lie in the tourist industry. Many elephants take tourists on trekking expeditions in the north of the country, an extension of their time-honoured transport role, which in most cases allows elephants to live a reasonable life.
Other tourist-oriented activities are less forgiving. The preference for young elephants, due to their “cute” factor, at many circus-type shows means that many infant elephants are prematurely weaned, some as early as six months old. Opinion differs, but there is a general consensus that three years is the optimum age to wean a young elephant. Those weaned earlier have a reduced chance for survival.
Other elephants are brought into big cities like Bangkok to beg. Bangkok’s city authorities periodically attempt to send the animals back to their home provinces, but the relevant laws are hard to enforce. Sangduen “Lek” Chailert, the founder of the Elephant Nature Park, told the Bangkok Post in April 2008: “The elephant is the symbol of our country, and yet Thailand is the only country that allows elephants to beg in the streets.”
The mahouts can make good money begging in the city, but the noise and pollution are distressing to the elephants, some of which have been killed in the city’s heavy traffic. While Chailert and others like her have focused attention on the plight of Thailand’s elephants in recent years, their situation remains grave. How many will see the twenty-second century is an open question.
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