Something different: Protesting elephants (and their mahouts)

Today mahouts and about a hundred elephants march to the Government House in Bangkok. They oppose a change in the registration system and they protest against 'tyrannizing' of officials.

The amendment aims to get a better grip on the registration of poached elephants. And that's what the conflict is all about. In recent years, elephants have been confiscated from elephant camps and also some villages in the North and Northeast. Some were not registered, others are suspected to have been registered illegally. The camp owners and villagers complain about the raids, calling them intimidating.

Incidentally, the registration is no longer a piece of paper on which the name of the animal and the owner are stated, as well as some external characteristics of the animal. The certificate is issued by the district office and apparently (but the article doesn't make that clear) can be easily tampered with.

Until recently, the confiscated elephants were housed in the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang (photo home page). Because it's full, animals are now technically confiscated. They may remain with their owner, but it may not perform any work. In any case, this puts an end to the complaints about the poor care of the confiscated elephants.

Naetiwin Amorsing can relate to that. His 2-year-old Phang Tangmo was confiscated in June last year. The animal was rehomed in Lampang and when Naetiwin got it back 15 months after legal proceedings, the animal was severely weakened. The vet told him it could die within two months.

It is unclear how many domesticated elephants Thailand has. The Ministry of Home Affairs says 2.633 (of which 2.276 are registered), the National Institute of Elephant Research and Health Service, a division of the Ministry of Agriculture, says 4.200. These have been treated by the institute for the past 10 years. The number is based on microchips implanted in the animals.

The criticized change to the registration system means that registration will go from the Department of the Interior to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. What's so bad about that is not clear to me from the article. Maybe because then there is no more to cheat?

(Source: Spectrum, Bangkok Post, October 27, 2013)

Photos: Protest from elephant owners and mahouts. They threatened to move on to Bangkok earlier. Today it is happening.

Submitted communication

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