Thailand – Citizens take action to feed elephants amid lack of official attention

Location: Chiang Mai – Thailand

Language: Thai

Duration: 00:04:37

Source: A24

Restriction: A24 clients

Dateline: 18-02-2022

Storyline:

 According to the survey by the Thai Elephant Alliance Association, Thailand has around 3,700 to 3,800 elephants to work for tourism, almost all of them have become jobless due to the economic conditions and COVID-19 pandemic which makes it’s difficult for the mahouts to take care of them as each elephant eats what is equal to 10% of their weight while they’re 2,000 – 5,000 kg. Srettha Thavisin, Director of Sansiri Public Company Limited, came up with the idea to offer the company’s 70 rai of empty land in San Kamphaeng District, Chiang Mai Province for growing Napier grass with the help of locals and mahouts to feed the elephants. The idea has led many organizations and companies in Chiang Mai to step up to offer their empty lands or donate food for elephants. However, there’s still no support from the government in all these 2 years amid appeals from the Elephant Alliance Association to the government to see these elephants as a national treasure of Thailand.

Shot lists:

– (Soundbite) Pritong Singkhonpithak – Napier crop’s worker;

“Take care of the grass and grow the grass for elephant. (We) will load them up to the truck and deliver them to each elephant conservation – Mae Taeng, Mae Wang, Mae Rim, and Patara ah…Hang Dong.”

– (Soundbite) Theerpat Trungprakan – President of Thai Elephant Alliance Association;

“Most of the 3,800 elephants in Thailand had been raised in the tourism circle. And thus, since our country was lockdown – which is already 2 years now, it’s obvious that the mahouts have no income. Almost every day or alternately, we receive a report about elephants getting sick or dying.”

– (Soundbite) Gantong Lertwongrattanakul – Mahout in Chiang Mai;

“Here in Mae Khanin, there’re more than 10 elephants. Now, I’m taking care of 2 elephants – a mother and a child. These days, I go harvest the grass I grew. It’s because the drought is coming, there’s not enough grass now.”

– (Soundbite) Permpong Savigun – Project Manager of Patara Elephant Conservation;

“We’re helping each other – with the mahouts – to take care of this place and the elephants and to search in the area far away from here. We go into the forest to see if there’s anything to feed an elephant. If there’s any, we’d tell each other. I wish the tourists would come. If there’re tourists, we can afford to pay for the mahouts with the income.”

– (Soundbite) Theerpat Trungprakan – President of Thai Elephant Alliance Association;

“The advantage of Sansiri’s pilot project is that other organizations can see the guidelines and come to support our project. The latest one is from the army – the Pack Squadron together with Chiang Mai Provincial Administration Organization offered us an over 100 rai of land (approx. 39.5 acres or 1,600,00 sqm) to grow the grass. This is the 2^nd phase. Also, we received contact from many companies. What we can’t ignore is funding the budget to hire the mahouts. It’s something we need to figure out together of how to keep these 3000 to 4,000 mahouts, so that they can take care of the elephant for our country.”

– (Soundbite) Theerpat Trungprakan – President of Thai Elephant Alliance Association;

“It’s undeniable that we’re the country with elephants living in. So, more than the 70 million citizens we need to take care of, our government must not forget or ignore that these over 3,800 elephant citizens are also part of Thailand.

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