Elephant Welfare Restoration Project

As Thailand is viewed and ranked as one of the top countries in the world which controls domesticated elephants in a harmful way, the Elephant Sanctuary Asia Foundation focuses on establishing and improving the way people treat domesticated elephants. The foundation also wants to improve the welfare and well-being of domesticated elephants in Thailand.

The project will conduct a survey, investigate the well-being of domesticated elephants, educate people in the elephant camps about the welfare of domesticated elephants, and also improve the quality of elephants’ lives. It will start from the elephant camps in the northern region.

Social issues and solutions 

At present, there are more than 3,000 domesticated elephants in Thailand with many types of elephant problems, such as the excessive use of elephant labor, the lack of understanding and proper training of elephants, and the well-being of elephants that have been neglected including habitat, food, and medicine. Now, the law for the prevention of cruelty and the welfare of elephants is still in progress by the government. Especially in the Covid-19 crisis, many elephant camps still lack knowledge and basic needs for raising elephants, causing the welfare of Thai elephants to be even more worrying.

Therefore, the Foundation has conducted a plan to develop and restore the welfare of domesticated elephants in Thailand, as well as setting a budget for elephants and camps. This project will be evident to the world that Thai elephants will have a better life by starting from the first 10 camps in the northern region with about 300 elephants.

Project implementation 

1. Survey and examine elephant camps in Thailand, North-Central-Isan-South, on the way the elephant camps raise elephants; whether or not they have been abused. The topics of the examination are as follows: feeding elephants with an adequate amount of food per day, using elephants within the scope of work, elephant habitat, and elephant health checks.
2. Analyze solutions and plan for restoring elephant camps that are subject to elephant abuse.
3. Set a budget for developing and restoring the welfare of elephants divided into food and medicine expenses for the elephant camp, academic support, training on elephant rearing by experts, elephant health checks by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, and habitat development, as well as a water system for elephants.
4. Summarize the results of the first six months’ survey and analyze the movement of the rehabilitation of domesticated elephants project.

The Person in Charge of the Project

Natthakan Kaeokanpai (Manager of Elephant Sanctuary Asia Foundation)