There are over 300 elephants registered in the Surin province and the vast majority of them are trapped in the unfortunate trade of street begging. This is a terrible life for elephants who require thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables and clean water daily. Street begging reduces an elephant’s life expectancy by at least 50%. Despite differences in opinion on other matters, all elephant conservation organizations agree that street begging is wrong.
The Surin government has approached Elephant Nature Foundation to help develop elephant-based tourism in Surin. With their support, our goal is to establish sustainably managed elephant tourism as an alternative to both street begging and to other forms of tourism, such as circuses and elephant rides. Families of elephants will roam freely in natural habitat and their mahouts will be provided with a steady income. This income will supplement some of the money that the mahouts previously made street begging with their elephant, thereby encouraging them to stay at the park.
Elephant Nature Foundation is recruiting volunteers to participate in this important project. Volunteers are needed to help reforest elephant habitat that has been destroyed by decades of logging.
We will also focus on community development, aiming to show that by participating in the Surin project, mahouts are helping their community and their elephants. And of course our volunteers will have lots of time to feed and bathe the elephants while watching them enjoy their newfound freedom.
