Sangduen Chailert
An Elephantine Mission By Rakkit Rattachumpoth
Share it
“Thai elephants are under serious threat.”
Related Stories
Sangduen Chailert has elephants on her mind. She works tirelessly to keep the elephant population in Thailand from dwindling to drastic levels. “Thai elephants are under serious threat. Unless they are promptly and appropriately protected, they might only exist in books and photos in the near future,” says Sangduen.
Sangduen was born into a remote mountain community in Northern Thailand 47 years ago. Her love of the pachyderm began when she was very young. She was just a teenager when she first saw elephants being used for commercial logging along the Thai-Burmese border. The experience changed her life.
In 1996, Sangduen, together with her family, founded the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai.
Today, the park is supported by Sangduen’s family tour business which runs educational and environmental trips as well as a travel website. The main objective of the park is to provide a sanctuary for elephants to live peacefully in their natural environment. Thirty rescued elephants of all ages are currently under the park’s care. The disabled, orphan or blind elephants are mostly rescued from private owners, and fees are negotiated to enable them to join the park’s herd.
Sangduen’s latest project is to remove elephants from urban cities and bring them back to the natural environment. At present, thousands of elephants wander around big cities like Bangkok with mahouts (elephant caretaker) seeking donations from tourists or the public.
Sangduen also plans to open an elephant centre in Surin, Thailand’s northeastern province considered to be the primary home of indigenous elephants. The new sanctuary will serve as another alternative for mahouts to bring their elephants back home to nature.
“The Reader’s Digest recognition is a great honour for me. It shows that society cares about the survival of the elephants,” she adds.
|
| |||||
Post A Comment
| Name* | |
| Email* | |
| Comment* | |
Disclaimer : Reader's Digest reserves the right and authority to display your postings or not, and modify your posts to remove offensive material, remove vulgar comments, remove insults or delete any other content deemed inappropriate, at our discretion.
.gif)
Have You Seen...
 Living |  Food & Recipes |  Inspirational |  Home & Garden |  Home & Garden |  Food & Recipes |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
