Elephant heaven.

In 1988, the Thai government, in a belated move to save what forests remained in the country, banned all logging in Thailand. While this was happy news for the environment, it was very bad news for the thousands of elephants employed in the logging industry. Almost overnight, they lost their jobs. And they had done their jobs so well, there was no longer forestland for them to live in.

Many, many elephants died. Elephants require lots of food, certainly more than unemployed loggers can afford. Some elephants were sold to Myanmar, and some were sold to work as city “beggars,” garnering big money from tourists who pay to see the elephants do tricks. Some got jobs giving tourist rides. The lucky ones are treated well and enjoy good relationships with their handlers, or mahouts, but many have not been so lucky.

Today I met a woman, named Sangduen “Lek” Chailert,  who has made it her mission in life to make better lives for the elephants of Thailand. We paid a visit to the elephant sanctuary she founded, Elephant Nature Park, and what an incredible place it is.

The park, situated in a gorgeous valley 1.5 hours from Chaing Mai city, is home to over 30 elephants that Lek has rescued from bad situations. Steve and I fed a basket of food to an enormous guy named Max (reportedly the tallest elephant in Thailand), whose misshapen front leg was the result of an improperly healed broken bone. The elephant Jokita is completely blind because her handler on the logging camp took out her eyes with a slingshot. (When Lek brought her in, she was worried Jokita would not be accepted by the other elephants. One old auntie elephant immediately took Jokita “under her wing” and now they are inseparable, best friends!) Heartbreaking stories with happy endings abound in the Park.

Not all the stories have happy endings. In 2001 (I think), Lek guided a documentary filmmaker to view a paah jaan, the process where young elephants are “broken in.” The elephants are taken from their mothers, put in a tiny pen so they can’t move, and deprived of food, sleep, and water for several (up to 7) days. During this time they are really tortured: jabbed with nails, metal hooks, and hot irons, poked in the sensitive inner ear for maximum pain, beaten on the trunk with sticks. This is supposed to break their spirit and make them better workers. Many elephants die in the process. It was all captured on film, as was Lek’s work so save a newborn elephant whose mom had died from disease right after she was born. Ging Mae was in very bad shape, nearly starved, with open wounds from where she had wedged herself between two trees.  But Ging Mae was a real success story: Lek nursed her back to health and together they beat Ging Mae’s almost impossible odds for survival.    

Then the documentary was released (we watched it at the Park -- brutal. There was not a dry eye in the room.), and caused some very negative attention to be focused on the country. Many Thais denied that this type of treatment is common. Lek received death threats for her role in the story. The baby elephant, Ging Mae, was poisoned and she died. What devastation. (I should note here that we were not told all these things during our tour…I read about most of it in the many newspaper articles about Lek posted in the reception area. Aside from the documentary we watched, our visit focused on the positive things going on at the park, not the horrors in these elephants’ past lives. We fed the elephants and bathed with them in the river. Although scarred and in some cases misshapen, they were healthy and well cared for. So despite the tone of this blog, it really was a happy place, not sad. Check out my photos for proof :^)   

The good news is, of course, that this "elephant heaven" exists... and Lek is now receiving accolades. In fact, she was named Time Magazine’s Asia Heroes of 2005 for her work (article link below). A Texan heard of her work and purchased and donated the land on which her elephants now live. Many volunteers come from all over the world to work at the camp, and still more visitors come for the day, paying a rather high entrance fee (2500 baht) which goes to the care of the elephants. Lek has really accomplished something in the face of many obstacles, and I will forever be impressed by this dynamic lady’s story. Althought I have talked much about what we did there (look at the photos for that, it was a great day. If you are in Chiang Mai, I would highly recommend a visit to The Elephant Nature Park.
 
For more information:
The park's website: 
www.elephantnaturefoundation.org

Times article on Lek:
www.time.com/time/asia/2005/heroes/sangduen_chailert.html

Controversy surrounding the paah jaan video:
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article804512.ece

Another visitor's article, better than my blog: http://www.travelintelligence.com/travel-writing/1003791/Asia/Thailand/The-North/Chiang-Rai/Elephant-Conservation.html