While planning our trip to Thailand, I spent hours researching elephant sanctuaries and, through that research, came across renowned conservationist Lek Chailert. Lek has dedicated her life to advocating for ethical elephant practices throughout Asia, creating sanctuaries committed to the rescue and rehabilitation of mistreated elephants.

During my research, I learned that for elephants to be trained to perform for humans or ridden, they go through a torture process to break their spirit, called phajaan in Thai. The elephants are removed from their mothers as babies, chained, beaten, starved, and even stabbed in a small box with bullhooks until they submit or, in worse cases, die. If they aren't used in the tourism industry, the elephants are put to work in the logging fields and worked tirelessly, often with untreated injuries they sustain while being forced to perform hard labor.

It's easy to take an ambivalent stance to these practices when, for most, thousands of miles separate you from this world. Over the years, complacency with my life in the United States has made me guilty of this, out of sight, out of mind. The opportunity to see first-hand the repercussions of human misdeeds, I would be remiss in not sharing those experiences with anyone willing to listen and open to learning.

Incredibly grateful to share these experiences with our babies even if they won’t remember them

The Tour

The day finally came for us to embark on a tour of Elephant Nature Park (ENP), the elephant sanctuary and rehabilitation center founded by Lek Chailert in Thailand. ENP is located an hour and a half outside Chiang Mai in the Mae Taeng Valley. We departed in a shuttle from their Chiang Mai office, making one stop during our journey to the sanctuary. As we entered the valley, we began seeing other sanctuaries nearby and glimpses of elephants as we drove past, peaking the excitement of everyone in the van.

We opted for the half-day tour since we were traveling with our two children, ages 2 and 1. We arrived at ENP around 9:45 AM and were shown our assigned table, where we could leave anything we wanted to and where we would have our vegetarian lunch later that morning after the tour. We reconvened with our guide for the day and started our tour where they prepare the food for the animals on site.

In addition to elephants, rescued buffalo, boar, goats, cats, and dogs reside at the sanctuary, requiring an exorbitant amount of food. We walked by shelves loaded with bananas, mounds of shucked corn, and piles of watermelons prepped by dedicated staff and volunteers who spend their vacation volunteering at ENP. Each elephant also receives a cake on their birthday (sponsored by digital donors who receive a video of the elephants receiving the cakes, a tradition that was started during COVD-19), so several were prepared on a table nearby to be taken out to the elephants. The sheer volume of food as we walked through was remarkable.

Next, we moved outdoors to where the elephants freely roamed the sanctuary. Having just spent time in South Africa this summer, I quickly realized how much smaller the Asian elephant is than the African elephant—other differences I noticed were in their head shape and ear size. The African elephant ears are much longer and floppier, while the Asian elephant ears are smaller and rounder. I learned the African elephant can grow up to 13 feet tall, weighing about 9 tons, while the Asian elephant can grow up to 11 and a half feet tall, weighing up to six tons. Though both the male and female African elephants will usually have tusks, only the male Asian elephant will have them.

We continued our walk, catching up to a group of elephants just receiving their brunch. Sensing the arrival of the food, a baby trotted over and made sure to wiggle her way into a spot on the feeding platform between the older ladies already partaking in the vegetarian delights.

We spent the next hour and a half slowly meandering around the park, learning about the elephants we encountered along our walk. As we approached one of the last elephants on our tour, I immediately noticed her gait seemed off, and as we got closer, it became apparent she had sustained a terrible injury. Medo came from the logging industry, where an accident left her with a broken ankle that went untreated for a long time. When her previous owners realized she could no longer work, they forced her into a pen for breeding purposes. The male bull she was caged with dislocated her hip in an attempt to mate, exasperating her injuries further.

By the time Medo was rescued and brought to the ENP, there was nothing they could do to fix her ankle. Her story is just one of many like this as you walk around and see first-hand the results of human mistreatment of these beautiful animals. Backs of elephants wholly worn down from being ridden and limps of other elephants who sustained injuries while logging, chained up, or performing for tourists. The magnitude of the mistreatment weighs heavy when you are staring at it directly in front of you.

To care for the elephants and other animals, ENP has nine veterinarians on-site; three specialize in elephants, with the remaining six being general practitioners. According to an article by Douglas Anthony Cooper for Readers Digest Canada, ENP hopes to have a fully operational elephant hospital by 2024.

As the tour ended, we were left to reflect on the experience and enjoy a buffet lunch before hopping the shuttle back to Chiang Mai. At ENP, there is no washing of the elephants and no riding. It is a sanctuary for these rescued animals to live out their days cared for and free. This sanctuary model created by Lek is being utilized in other parts of Thailand and Southeast Asia, where the change from riding and watching elephants perform to solely enjoying them in their habitat is slowly taking hold.

Per ENP, “Elephant Nature Park encourages elephant owners and tourism operators to adopt ethical practices for the well-being of elephants under their care. To further promote responsible elephant tourism, Asian Elephant Projects was established to support various Saddle Off projects throughout Thailand, representing a significant advancement in the way these projects operate.

The Saddle Off model seeks to elevate the living conditions of captive Asian elephants by eliminating the burden of elephant riding and performing in shows, while still enabling owners to sustain their livelihood through responsible tourism. By creating a stress-free environment, these programs provide elephants with the opportunity to roam, socialize, and forage in natural habitats, while allowing visitors to have an authentic and intimate interaction with these gentle giants.”

Since our visit, I have continued to research more on elephant rescue and the plight of the Asian elephant. During our time at ENP, our guide told us that elephants cannot be released back into the wild in Thailand once they are rehabilitated. As more of the rural landscape is developed in Thailand, more wild elephants are left nowhere to go.

The Elephant Nature Park in Thailand has roughly 200 acres with over 100 elephants on-site, but as they continue to rescue elephants, the need for more space will arrive. They also have a sister sanctuary in Cambodia, Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary, home to 32,000 acres of jungle habitat preserve with three elephants and other wildlife.

Lek has accomplished so much over the past twenty years, a goal that started to raise enough money to rescue one elephant from the logging industry. Despite the forward momentum, there is still a long way to go before the traditional mistreatment of elephants in Asia ends.

Education, advocacy, and contribution are critical to help in the ongoing efforts to save the Asian elephant. You can also get involved by volunteering on-site in Thailand or Cambodia, sponsoring an elephant at the sanctuary, or directly contributing to ENP in their fight to save the Asian elephant and provide them with the life of freedom they deserve.

Elephant Nature Park

The Tour

Art & Adventure

Longneck Karen Village