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Published: September 16th 2012
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Our week volunteering at ENP was one of the best experiences we've had since arriving in SE Asia 5 months ago. We were both overwhelmed with the place and I cried every day; for what the elephants and dogs had been through and also with admiration for the founder Lek and all she has done and continues to do, not only for the animals but for the local community.
We were picked up early on a Monday morning and soon enough we were on our way to ENP, about 60km out of Chiang Mai city. As soon as we'd dumped our bags we met some gentle ele's and spent time feeding and getting used to being around them. It was all really surreal at first, especially playing and chucking water over them in the river. They are the gentlest creatures in the world, but they are so big and I don't think we were the only ones a bit wary of our new friends! Strange that within a day we had grown used to them and enjoyed spending time with them; feeding and bathing them daily.
Before being educated at ENP I didn’t know much about Elephants. All I
knew is that the Asian elephants are smaller than the African ones and their ears are smaller (I’ve since learnt that their ears are 1/3 size of African ones). I also knew my mum was stood on by one whilst growing up in South Africa and it hurt, that was the extent of my Elephant knowledge!
At the park we learnt that a century ago there were 100,000 Asian elephants in Thailand and now there are around 2,500. What a dramatic drop, thank goodness there are people like Lek in the world who have dedicated their lives to help save elephants. We also learnt that 90% of the elephants in Asia are tortured into submission, so they will obey their Mahout (elephant trainer). They are tied up inside a wooden pen and beaten, poked, abused in all different ways until the elephant finally gives in and succumbs to his/her master. This process takes around a few weeks and then the elephants are ready to feed the needs of tourists who want an elephant ride or an elephant painting. It was so hard to watch the footage of the helpless elephants in so much pain, just so they can give
rides and perform for visitors. I know plenty of lovely decent people who have had elephant rides and been to animal shows and I know they would not have done so had they known the truth. Before I came to SE Asia I also lacked awareness, I was looking forward to meeting an elephant and sitting on his/her back, until I learnt what the animals go through and it’s only through education that things will change.
ENP was set up by Lek, who was born a few km away from where the park is. She grew up with elephants and saw numbers decreasing at an alarming rate due to their treatment at the hands of humans. The sanctuary was founded in 1996 and is home to 34 injured, orphaned, disabled and blind elephants all rescued who now can live in a peaceful natural environment. All of the elephants, except a lucky few who were born on the park, had heart breaking stories, here are a couple from the ele’s who really touched my heart, but all the elephants had their own distressing story.
Jokia, who was born on 19/5/61 had been working in the logging industry in the
Burmese mountains and been pregnant for several months when she suffered a miscarriage. At the loss of her baby, she became depressed and refused to work, laying down whenever the mahouts asked her to. In an attempt to force the grieving elephant, the workers shot at her eyes with stones from slingshots, which caused her to become blind and seriously injured. Lek rescued Jokia and the oldest female ele on the park, Mae Perm, adopted her and the pair are now inseparable with Jokia completely dependent on Mae Perm. Watching these two together was just gorgeous and a reminder of how similar humans and elephants are.
Another elephant Mae Tee, born on 21/1/44 was rescued from a life of street begging where she was forced to stay awake and take amphetamines. She's much better now but has stiff joints and has other problems associated with drug abuse and can only walk very slowly. She has lovely long eyelashes and she was a lovely gentle ele to be around, quite happy with plenty of hugs and kisses!
Our week of work at ENP was so much fun and hard at times, physically and emotionally as already mentioned! Every morning
and afternoon we would do jobs such as wash and prepare the elephant’s food. They eat so much, 150-200 pounds and drink about 40 gallons of water a day, so you can imagine how many watermelons and pumpkins we washed and chopped! We’d also go for a ride out to the fields and harvest the corn and sugar canes for the ele’s dinner. We of course spent time shovelling poop, but surprisingly we liked this task the most as we got to spend time with the elephants. We spent evenings learning about the horrors mentioned above, as well as chatting to the other volunteers – 20 of us a real good bunch. We also had our own private masseurs and I enjoyed some great Thai massages that seemed to help my dodgy ankle, bonus! What was so great about ENP was not only were the elephants looked after, but how Lek has offered Burmese refugees work – most of the mahouts. The ladies from the village worked in the kitchen and provided the massages; everything about the place was fantastic.
I’ve not even mentioned the dogs! ENP has rescued over 300 dogs that were left homeless after the devastating
floods in 2011. We spent some of our free time with the lovely doggies, all they want is love and attention and it made me cry, I spent a lot of time crying whilst at ENP. They are in the process of setting up a program for volunteering, if I am lucky enough to go back to the park I would definitely like to do this.
We are grateful to have been able to spend time at this haven; it was a fun, informative, eye-opening experience. We miss waking in the night to the ele’s singing and seeing their smiling faces in a morning. Please, if you come to see elephants, come to ENP or one of the other conservation projects where you can feed, bathe and spend time with them without causing further harm.
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Anne Ash
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Ele's and Dede
My favorite blog so far. What a brilliant week for you! The picture of Dede looked like Charlie!