Thai elephants do not belong in cities. Without sufficient living
space and food the Thai elephant will become extinct.
Therefore, help Bring the Elephant Home to reach her goals. Will
you support BtEH go to link
Our current main project
is ‘Trees for Elephants’. The forest
is the natural home for Thai elephants; the majority of the
problems of elephants are related to the gigantic deforestation
that had been going on since the 1950’s
About BTEH
Bring The Elephant Home (BTEH) is a foundation that campaigns to
help bring the Thai Elephants home and prevent the elephants from
facing extinction. At Bring the Elephant Home Foundation; we
campaign to help Thai elephants to promote animal friendly
eco-tourism, protect and pro-create a natural habitation for the
elephants.
Our campaigns for the elephants do not stop there; we also harvest
our own food for the elephants, we support community development in
traditional elephant villages, educate and involve the local
schools in hopes of a better tomorrow where our children and
animals can cohabitate peacefully. We also try to find a resolution
to the human-elephant conflicts and promote awareness of
deforestation. In every project we are always cooperating closely
with Thai Organizations.
Trees for Elephants
Our current main project is ‘Trees for Elephants’. The forest
is the natural home for Thai elephants; the majority of the
problems of elephants are related to the gigantic deforestation
that had been going on since the 1950’s. In the 1950’s, 65% of
north-eastern Thailand was covered with luscious forest; in 1981
only 8% of this remains. As natural habitat and food is
disappearing and so are the elephants, now they are in danger of
facing extinction! In 1900 there were about 100,000 elephants in
Thailand. Today, there are only 1,500 estimated numbers of wild
elephants that have survived! Due to the lack of food in the forest
for the elephants the villagers are forced to bring their
domesticated elephants into the city to beg for food. In the few
areas where wild elephants still have a chance to survive,
conflicts between human and elephants are getting worse every year.
Thai elephants need more habitat and food to survive! This is why
Bring the Elephant Home started the campaign ‘Trees for Elephants’.
Within a year we aim to plant 100,000 trees in areas where the
elephants are most threatened. Our goal is to replant the natural
habitation and food for the elephants to strengthen the elephants
fight for survival!
Please help!
To achieve our aims, Bring the Elephant Home works closely with
Thai organizations as the Elephant Nature Park, the Wild Elephant
Research and Conservation Fund and the Population and Development
Association. We need their experience, knowledge and network.
Together we can successfully make a difference for Thai elephants!
At the moment we started ‘Trees for Elephants’ at three
locations: Elephant Nature Park, Khao Yai National Park,
Traditional elephant village in
Isaan
Achieved thus far
Bring the Elephant Home had successfully liberated two street
elephants Douk Ngern and Sri Nuan from their life from street
begging for food. In a demonstrative and a video documented tour;
we traveled from Bangkok to the Elephant Nature Park, which
is an elephant sanctuary in Mae Tang north of Chiang Mai. During
this tour we organized elephant lessons at local schools, held
elephant art competitions and brainstormed with local governments
in the cause of campaigning against street elephants!
Since this project; Bring the Elephant Home continues its’
campaigns to help Thai elephants and bring them home to a sanctuary
where elephants can be just elephants happily. With the vigorous
campaigning and much needed help through funding; BTEH was able to
purchase a banana plantation and land to extend the Elephant Nature
Park.
The book about Bring the Elephant Home
Presently written; a
book titled Thaise Olifanten van de Straat by
Antoinette van de Water (founder, Dutch) and Liesbeth Sluiter
(journalist, Dutch). Is an extraordinary story about destruction of
nature in a country with a Buddhist tradition, where the
deep-settled Buddhist philosophy is to respect all living
organisms. The story describes the liberation of ex street
elephants Douk Ngern and Sri Nuan and their journey to the Elephant
Nature Park. The English version of the book will be published
around July 2008 by Silkworm Publishing.
Photo
album of Bring the Elephant Home