Kaziranga elephants: Ethical? (1 Viewer)

Does anyone know about the treatment of the elephants at Kaziranga? I'm planning on visiting Mid-March (PM me if you'll be there and want to go birding!) and while I've heard that elephant-back is really the way to do it, I've also heard that in most cases, domesticated elephants should not be supported due to mistreatment. Curious if anyone has specifics about these.

Cheers.

brd said:

Does anyone know about the treatment of the elephants at Kaziranga? I'm planning on visiting Mid-March (PM me if you'll be there and want to go birding!) and while I've heard that elephant-back is really the way to do it, I've also heard that in most cases, domesticated elephants should not be supported due to mistreatment. Curious if anyone has specifics about these.

Cheers.

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There are one hour elephant rides early every morning from the central entrance to Kaziranga,but these are primarily for Indian tourists to see the Rhinos,and occasionally they turn up a Tiger. They only cover a tiny area of the park and are far from ideal for the birding.The Elephants are kept on site,and when I was there last year they seemed to be well looked-after. Access to the rest of the park is via jeeps along gravel roads.You can't walk in the park because of potential danger from the Rhinos,which are very common, and snakes.
Tom Lawson.

Hi,

I wonder who knows better how to treat elephants than Indians, who have only 4500 years of experience? Tourist elephants in India are well treated.

As Tom said, most of Kaziranga is seen from jeeps. In Kaziranga itself you cannot walk on foot, and this is place for big mammals and water and grassland birds (swamp francolin, big goodies like pelicans, raptors etc). Elephant safaris (recommended) are mostly to get close to wild game, although I also saw my only Bengal Florican from elephant back. Try to tell that you are naturalist and want birds, so they seat you alone, or with somebody who is more serious about wildlife. Elephants normally go in a loose group and most tourists are casual visitors, but your mahout will likely let you move aside, stop when you see a bird or want to get a good photo etc.

For birding on foot, you can go to so-called tea estate or gibbon sanctuary where there are forest birds.

jurek said:

Hi,

I wonder who knows better how to treat elephants than Indians, who have only 4500 years of experience? Tourist elephants in India are well treated.

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I'm glad to hear this, but I trust you don't actually believe that a long history of domestication equates to ethical treatment. In many places I think you could almost see an inverse relationship.

I've ridden elephants in other parts of India. Some I felt like they were treated very well, others make me sick to think that I supported that. But overall I don't enjoy elephants while birding for the simple reason that they aren't stable enough for me to keep my binos on something. Way too much movement!

The treatment of young elephants being raised in India for tourism has not been researched (yet), so unfortunately it is not known. Fortunately though, the elephants do not derive from Myanmar populations though which is where the brutality occurs, when they are transported across to Thailand.
There has been no whispers of cruelty however which would instigate an investigation on the scale of the Myanmar/Thailand trade so, for now, the situation is fine.

James