The domestic Asian elephant is classified as livestock, so does not merit much government protection, although the population is under threat. For the great beasts that buttressed Thailand as organic tanks during warfare and powerful bulldozers during peacetime, Lek has emerged as a champion, as their forest terrain continues to diminish. Historically, some 100,000 elephants roamed Siam; but in Thailand today, only 1,600 domestic elephants are believed to remain, with 500 wild ones in national forests. Thailand’s official ban on logging in 1989, a belated response to climate change, put most timber-hauling elephants out of a job overnight. Owners sent their redundant animals into the concrete jungle to beg for their suppers, and a city circuit for elephants has evolved around the tourist hot-spots. Each beast eats 10 per cent of its body weight every day, and the price for so much fodder is formidable. Lek was disturbed by the sight of elephants in Bangkok, weaving through eight lanes of traffic, posing for photographs and gobbling tourist-bought goodies, although the law bars them at the city limits “It makes me so sad,” says Lek.
“No elephant can hear properly in a city, and the smog affects vision. For creatures who feel vibrations through their feet, city traffic is terrifying And I hate it when drunks force them to drink beer. It is an affront to their dignity.” Officially, all Thai elephants are prohibited from the highways, obstructing the flow of traffic, or fouling the roads. (Their urine can scour away paint within minutes.) At age 61, working elephants must, by law, be set loose in the forest for mandatory retirement, but bogus elephant birth certificates have become big business, especially since legislation to protect wild elephants makes it prudent to have convincing identification papers when making a sale A healthy elephant can cost 500,000 Baht (£6,900). On a typical night cadging handouts outside Bangkok’s karaoke bars and massage parlours, an elephant can clear £50 for its owner. But eating roadside leaves coated with exhaust car fumes can induce an severe bellyache, so passers-by are urged to treat the creatures to 50p packets of vegetables or sugar cane sold by their handlers. Baby elephants attract the most admirers and are nimble at splashing through sewage culverts to dodge the law enforcers.
Older elephants, senses dulled by the city, often are less agile. The largest animal recovering at Lek’s Elephant Nature Park is Max, who measures 11ft tall at the shoulder. The former logging elephant was the victim of a freak traffic accident which left him looking “like some kind of Frankenstein,” Lek recalls. While the elephant was trudging along a southern highway after completing his nightclub begging rounds, an 18-wheel truck mowed him down Max was felled and dragged 15ft. Ironically, the hit-and-run vehicle on the superhighway was an illicit logging truck, travelling without lights to evade the authorities who would shake the drivers down for bribes.
Karl Cullen, a volunteer keeper from Dublin, says: “If Max had not managed to get back on his feet within 72 hours, his internal organs would have been crushed by their own weight. A family bought him for a prestige pet to keep in their back garden.” But Max failed to thrive. His prolonged and painful recovery seemed to dull his appetite. “He was a bag of skin and bones when he got here and could barely move, but he is incredibly strong now,” Cullen adds. When Max’s facial wounds are cleaned each day, the big animal still winces, and sometimes puts his trunk into his mouth for comfort, as if he is sucking his thumb Lilly is another recovering elephant. Records show she was born in 1955, and she is an ex-speed freak.
Her former owners had not been content with the money she brought in from working at a trekking park, and made her moonlight at a second job. Her food was laced with methamphetamines and Lilly was put to work by night hauling illegally felled teak logs. As she built up a tolerance for the drug, the dose had to be increased, and one day after so many sleepless nights, Lilly had a breakdown She would stand motionless and stopped grazing. Her saliva could not be controlled, so Lek was summoned to the rescue. Jokia, a three-ton blind elephant, is another unlikely survivor. She can negotiate her own way to the river and back, and has been adopted by a sympathetic female elephant who gives her pointers through rumblings and trumpetings, squeaks and ultrasonic vibrations. A mahout’s badly aimed slingshot put Jokia’s left eye out, and her owner blinded the remaining one with an arrow in a fit of pique after the sulking elephant broke his arm.