Driving an elephant in the Thai jungle

Jan 19, 2010, 3:31 GMT

Mae Sapok, Thailand - The best of luck is to be found on the back of an elephant! Well this certainly applies to northern Thailand, where an increasing number of eco-conscious 'farangs,' as western visitors with white skin are known here, come for a relaxing break among the pachyderms.

Under expert local guidance they learn to ride the majestic beasts through the jungle, while at the same time discovering more about their habitat and the indigenous locals who inhabit it. Farang is a term of gentle mockery. But the abundance of cash they bring is very welcome.

As it turns out though, one of the farangs, a former keeper at the zoo in the Friedrichsfelde district of Berlin, has become one of the most respected elephant trainers in Thailand.

The animals here need all the help they can get, since the number of elephants in Asia is dwindling and their existence in many places is becoming more precarious.

The Mae Sapok elephant camp, which Bodo Jens Foerster, 46, has set up with his Thai partner Chai Nam Tsetang, lies on the end of the village of Doi Inthanon national park, around 60 minutes by car from the large city of Chiang Mai. Its popularity is based on trekking into the surrounding jungle territory and a 14-day course on how to 'learn to drive' an elephant.

Foerster travelled to Thailand only a year after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and learned his skills from the mahouts, the name given to elephant trainers by the hill-dwelling Karen people. He gradually came to understand the creatures and their ways and decided to stay on for good.

Learning to guide the creatures along sometimes narrow paths, accompanying them during baths in rivers and finding out how to saddle them with a howdah chair are all part of the 14-day course. 'It's not all that hard, especially since I seem to have established a rapport with my animal,' says one tourist.

A 25-year-old mahout by the name of Doe is always on hand to help the visitors and take care of the elephants. His duties include helping the elephants to find fresh grazing areas. Naturally he sleeps alongside the creatures too.

As the tourists amble along on their relaxed journey, another Karen man, 20-year-old Tam, coaxes the elephant forward, balancing perfectly on the creature's neck and using his thighs to steer. The elephant treads so obediently that he hardly ever needs to use the pointed metal hook called an ankus, used to guide the elephant and to correct poor behaviour. The elephant's 17-month-old baby runs around beside her.

It will be some time before the young elephant has reached the full weight of its mother, a stately 2.5 tons. 'Young animals should spend at least four years with the mother,' explained Foertster. At many camps, mother and offspring are separated far too soon.

The German is proud that the elephants live contentedly at his camp. The facility can boast eight fully-grown pachyderms, one of them a bull. Five young animals have been born here. Apart from one elephant, all of the creatures for the tourists have been hired from their owners, who live in a village on the border with Burma.

Both the government, the media and animal protection organizations are keen to ensure the future of elephants living in the wild, in parks and in various reserves. Phairat Chaiyakham, 65, head of the Pattay Elephant Village, located 800 kilometres south of Chiang Mai, has been campaigning on behalf of the animals for many decades.

Phairat laments that, even today, too many elephants are forced to trudge through the traffic-clogged Thai metropolises on begging tours, dependent on morsels from local traders. These animals often suffer from malnutrition and are prone to illness of various kinds. Such begging has officially been outlawed in Thailand, but the practice continues.

In his view it is better for the elephants to entertain tourists than having to beg for their existence. There are now more than 100 elephant parks in the south-east Asian country - ten alone around Pattaty, and 20 in the Chiang Mai vicinity.

Sadly, many visitors see elephants performing silly tricks or playing football rather than simply enjoying their natural habitat and many suffer badly at the hands of their impoverished keepers. Some also fall victim to landmines or are involved in road accidents.

Fortunately, help is at hand in the Asian Elephant Hospital run by Soraida Salwala in the north of the country. The 53-year old Thai attends lovingly to injured pachyderms, a passion triggered by the sight of a young elephant badly hurt after a collision with a lorry.

Elephant enthusiasts can learn a lot about the animals here. Around 100 years ago there were 100,000 of them in Thailand, but their number has shrunk dramatically since then.

According to the Asian Elephant Foundation of Thailand, there are only around 5,000 left and their future is uncertain. Idealists like Foerster and Soraida Salwala try to alleviate their plight, along with the tourists who pay to spend their time with the gentle giants.

Internet: www.elephant-soraida.com, www.asian-elephant.org.