[TH] Uncertain future for Thailand's elephants

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/27/2610287.htm

Uncertain future for Thailand's elephants

 

By Karen Percy<http://www.abc.net.au/profiles/content/s1888042.htm?site=news>for

AM

 

Posted Sat Jun 27, 2009 12:43pm AEST

Updated Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:45am AEST

[image: While tourists find elephants irresistible, Bangkok's authorities

are far from amused.]

<http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200906/r391157_1829006.jpg>

 

While tourists find elephants irresistible, Bangkok's authorities are far

from amused.

 

- *Audio: *Thai authorities try to rid the capital of elephants (AM)

<http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/am/200906/20090627-SAM8-bangkok-elephant\

s.mp3>

 

Elephants were once the backbone of Thailand's timber and construction

industries, but these days the thousands that are left have an uncertain

fate.

 

The proud and important symbols of the kingdom have been largely replaced by

machines in industry and now many domesticated beasts rely on tourists for a

living.

 

That often takes them right into the hustle and bustle of the capital,

Bangkok.

 

Outside a popular hotel one warm Bangkok night five-year-old Pii Poe is

doing tricks for the tourists.

 

The tourists buy sugar cane, feed it to the elephant and sometimes they ride

the elephant.

 

Pii Poe and its mahout, or keeper, are from Surin province where 1,500, or

about half of Thailand's domesticated elephants reside.

 

This mahout explains that it was hard in the countryside. For 10 years he

and the elephant were in a special government-run centre, where the elephant

would be beaten if it could not work.

 

But as much as the tourists and the mahouts want these beasts in the city -

it is illegal. The Bangkok authorities see them as a nuisance.

 

They have tried cracking down before, even paying the mahouts to stay in the

provinces.

 

This time they are going high-tech, implanting microchips which are used to

track how many times the elephants come into the city.

Offenders jailed

 

Repeat offenders can expect to be jailed and fined and the animals

confiscated.

 

But it seems hard to believe that this will work where previous schemes have

failed because of the acute poverty in the provinces and the lack of work

opportunities for the elephants.

 

Suchart Chongchaingam and her husband are preparing the sugar cane for

tonight's outing. For generations her family has been involved in raising

elephants.

 

" We come here because there is grass; at home there is none. It's either too

dry or it is flooded, " she said.

 

If it were not for the grass here, the family would have to fork out as much

as $160 a day to feed them.

 

Ms Suchart tells us the family cannot afford to keep the animals and so they

are hoping to sell them for $30,000 each.

 

" I want to go home; I want to go back to my children. I don't want to have

to keep running from the authorities, " she said.

 

But with few willing buyers and many willing sellers, Suchart and her family

have few other options.

 

 

--

" Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man

will not himself find peace. " -Albert Schweitzer