Asia Times: Beasts of burden


	July 1, 2000	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Beasts of burden
By Kelvin Ng

BANGKOK - The sight of a 2.5 meter tall, majestic elephant making its way along the noisy, congested streets of Bangkok at dusk is quite an eye-stopper. But while the sightings of a pachyderm in the Thai capital may be a treat for city residents, they are proof of how threatened the animal's lives have become in a country where the animals are almost a national symbol.

Driven by a lack of work in their hometowns and unable to adequately feed their elephants, the mahouts who used to steer their charges in the lush forests of northeastern Thailand now find themselves foraging in Bangkok. They buy fruit for their elephants and resell it to those who wish to feed the gentle giants. For about 20 baht (52 cents), a person can feed an elephant two bananas which mahouts carry with them. Veterinarians say this amount is nowhere near enough for the animals, which need to consume 200 to 250 kilograms of food, or about 10 percent of their body weight, a day.

''Mahouts may stay for two months, until they have collected enough money for their elephants' food,'' said Alongkorn Mahannop, a veterinarian at Bangkok's Dusit Zoo where he treats sick elephants. There are as many as 40 elephants with their mahouts in Bangkok at one time. Their owners ply the busy streets hoping sympathetic passers-by will pay enough for most of an elephant's daily food. Some Thais will even pay to crawl under the belly of an elephant for good luck. During the day the elephants and their mahouts often camp out in open areas in the city. But as Soraida Salwala, founder of Friends of the Asian Elephants, points out, ''Bangkok is not meant for elephants.''

For many, the plight of the elephant is a sad one for an animal that has long enjoyed the adulation of Thais. A white elephant adorned the red flag of Siam in days past. Siamese kings rode on the backs of elephants as they went to war. In more recent times, elephants have hauled felled timber logs in northern and northeastern Thailand. However, a 1987 ban on logging put many elephant handlers and their charges out of work.

Some elephants have since been retrained to entertain tourists, says Alongkorn. According to him, there are about 200 such elephants in Pattaya, 150 in Phuket, and 30 in Surat Thani. Yet many are still unemployed. In Surin, a northeastern province 457 kilometers from Bangkok, mahouts and their elephants form the largest group of those who make their way to the capital. ''There is not enough work and food in Surin,'' says Chisanu Tiyacharoensri, head of the Wild Animals Rescue Federation.

Mahouts who have tried rice farming can only find work during the (one or two) harvests each year. Some mahouts have tried leaving their animals at home to find work in factories - a heart-wrenching step for a mahout who typically has grown up with his elephant. ''Not just the mahout needs to eat. He depends on his elephant to feed his mother, brothers, and sisters,'' says Alongkorn, who is also a business development director with a zoological organization.

A mahout who is already hard pressed to earn enough for his family's meals can barely afford to provide the food that his elephant needs. Thus, the long journey to Bangkok on the back a 10-wheeler truck is sometimes the easy way out. ''Most of the elephants when they first come to Bangkok are very thin,'' said Alongkorn.

One such elephant died on the way from Surin to Bangkok on June 25, reported the English-language daily the Bangkok Post. The starving animal had devoured a 50-kilogram sack of uncooked rice, and later drank about 200 liters of water. Alongkorn, who performed the autopsy, says the elephant died from indigestion.

Alongkorn goes on to the streets of Bangkok to treat elephants almost every day. Most have to be dewormed, and some suffer from colic and diarrhoea. The veterinarian conceded that unclean water and dirty food may be the cause of the elephants' ailments. Pollution and grime in the city can also take their toll with the elephant getting stressed from walking long stretches and being touched by people. ''We never know when they are stressed. If they get aggressive and start kicking people who will be responsible?'' Soraida asks.

City officials tried banning the elephants from Bangkok in March to prevent accidents and deaths. Police officers herded the mahouts and their elephants, and arranged transport to get them out of Bangkok, but that failed to address the real problem - the lack of work of mahouts and elephants.

Soraida's foundation has been rallying the government and the city authorities to avoid stopgap measures like this. Chinasu and Soraida believe that the approach to help the mahouts has to be multipronged. ''Create jobs for them, and they will stay out of the city,'' says Soraida. Her seven-year uphill battle has finally begun to see progress.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will open the Baan Taklang Elephant Center in Surin at the end of August to try to give work to mahouts and their elephants. ''Visitors will get to see the culture, the way of life of the villagers. There will be shows by mahouts and elephant trappers. If the people in Surin are given this job, then at least they won't have to wander Bangkok looking for food for the elephants,'' said Chujit Pramodthayakul, an assistant director in TAT's planning division. Between 12 and 15 elephants and their mahouts will be hired under the pilot project.

(Inter Press Service)

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