(MM): Lonely Myanmar Elephant Camp Receives Few Tourists

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Lonely Myanmar Elephant Camp Receives Few Tourists

Posted on: Sunday, 8 March 2009, 18:05 CDT

 

Down a rocky path in an isolated mountain range in central Myanmar waits an

inquisitive, young elephant calf named Wine Suu Khaing Thein whom should be

the star attraction of the Pho Kyar eco-reserve, recounts AFP News.

 

The reserve is home to the one-year-old elephant calf, along with 80 other

elephants who roam about among decades-old teak trees and singing birds.

 

Although the camp promises elephant rides and jungle treks, eco-tourists

simply do not want to come to the military-dominated nation, let alone

attempt the pot-holed ride to the secluded Pho Kyar.

 

Holiday seekers to Myanmar have been declining since a violent crackdown in

2007 on anti-junta protests, while the previous year’s cyclone and coercion

from pro-democracy groups to shun the country also discourage tourists.

 

“We have very few visitors now,” said a manager of Asia Green Travels and

Tours Company, which arranges tours of the Pho Kyar park, who requested he

remain anonymous as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

 

Further he added, “It is not because of difficult transportation to this

place but because of tourist arrivals declining these last months.”

 

Despite it being the height of the tourist season, which runs from October

to April, there were no local or foreign visitors at the 20-acre park in the

Bago mountain range, on the day AFP reporters visited.

 

Instead, Wine Suu Khaing Thein gets a thrashing with a bamboo stick by one

of the elephant handlers, known as mahouts, rather than the attention of

curious spectators.

 

The man shouts, “You shouldn’t run here or there. Stay beside your mother,”

as he herds the calf back to her family as they await their check-up from

the vet.

 

Two hundred miles away from the camp is the commercial and transport hub,

Yangon, but even closer is the military regime’s sprawling, new capital

Naypyidaw, which tourists are prohibited to visit.

 

Since 1962, Myanmar has been controlled by various military juntas, and for

most of the last two decades opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been

detained and kept under house arrest.

 

In effort to deny military leaders revenue from tourism, she encouraged

foreigners to stay away from Myanmar, previously known as Burma. It is not

known if she still holds these views since she is kept quiet by the junta.

 

Heated debates among travelers on whether to explore Myanmar’s ancient

temples, disintegrating cities and isolated jungles have sparked

controversy. The Rough Guide travel series has elected not to publish a

book on the nation out of protest.

 

Moral disputes aside, the global economic recession and these latest events

in Myanmar have destroyed the industry just as it was taking flight.

 

Tourists’ confidence has been murdered after images of Buddhist monks

escaping gunfire during protests on Yangon’s streets in September 2007, and

of paddy fields of the southern delta scattered with bobbing corpses after

Cyclone Nargis last May.

 

The government’s hotel and tourism department reported 177,018 foreigners

arrived at Yangon International Airport in 2008, as oppose to the 231,587

foreigners who came in 2007; nearly a 25 percent decrease.

 

Khin, a manager of a Yangon tour company, said “Tourist arrivals have

declined because of Cyclone Nargis. Tourists think that we have a very bad

situation and dare not visit for relaxation.” It is unclear how many people

make it to Pho Kyar elephant camp, which was established 20 years ago,

because the reserve does not track visitors.

 

More than half of the camp elephants are working animals in the logging

industry for the Myanmar Timber Enterprise and help move fallen trees

through the jungle during dry season. When the rainy season comes again,

the elephants are returned to the camp to amuse any tourists that happen to

show up.

 

“Pho Kyar elephant camp is the best one in the country,” said a vet from the

forestry ministry who wishes not to release his name. “We always take care

of the elephants.”

 

There is an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 elephants in Myanmar, making it the

largest elephant population in Southeast Asia, reported a recent wildlife

group TRAFFIC that warned the animal is jeopardized by poaching.

 

Environmentalists in Myanmar have said that the junta have increased logging

into teak forests, and are capturing wild elephants to train for

clear-cutting operations that devastate their own habitats.

 

Managers at Pho Kyar camp desire to educate visitors about protecting the

elephants of Myanmar, if only holiday-seekers would return.

 

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

 

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