Citizens take action to feed elephants amid lack of official attention

Chiang Mai/Thailand – Following the economic ramifications of COVID-19, it became harder for mahouts, people ride and tend elephants, to provide food for elephants.

Srettha Thavisin, director of Sansiri Public Company Limited, came up with an idea to offer 70 rai (0.112 km 2 ) of the company’s 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.
Around 3,700 to 3,800 elephants, designated for tourism purposes, remained jobless, according to the survey by the Thai Elephant Alliance Association.

The lack of income resulting from the lockdown made it more difficult for mahouts to take care of the animals, especially since each elephant eats what is equal to 10% of its weight, which ranges between 2,000 – 5,000 kg.

Elephants getting sick or dying are reported almost every day, according to Theerpat Trungprakan, president of Thai Elephant Alliance Association.
Trungprakan also stressed the need for funds to keep 3,000 to 4,000 mahouts so they can take care of the country’s number of elephants which he considered as an important part of Thailand.

Trungprakan also stressed the need for funds to keep between 3,000 and 4,000 mahouts so that they could care for the country’s large number of elephants, which he considered an important part of Thailand.

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.

“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,” Gantong Lertwongrattanakul, Mahout in Chiang Mai said.