Watch: Nepal resort has unchained 12 elephants, and the jumbos are frolicking
For half a century, Tiger Tops, a popular resort in southern Nepal, offered elephant rides as a top attraction to draw in thousands of tourists from across the world.
For half a century, Tiger Tops, a popular resort in southern Nepal, offered elephant rides as a top attraction to draw in thousands of tourists from across the world.
Guests can follow the elephants shortly after sunrise on their morning excursion to the river, where the animals are free to graze. (Nepali Times/YouTube)
But it has now decided to scrap such safaris -- following complaints of cruelty, disease and stress to the animal -- and focus on sustainable and animal-friendly tourism practices, reported Nepali Times.
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Earlier this year, it unchained 12 captive elephants, inviting tourists to view them in their natural habitat instead. Tourists are forbidden to touch, click selfies, or feed the elephants, who are allowed to go about their natural lives without much hindrance.
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Guests can follow the elephants shortly after sunrise on their morning excursion to the river, where the animals are free to graze, reported the Kathmandu Post in January.
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Guests can follow the elephants shortly after sunrise on their morning excursion to the river, where the animals are free to graze, reported the Kathmandu Post in January.
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“Moving away from elephant safaris 50 years after we introduced them, seemed too big a step, but I had seen young elephants being trained at the breeding centre. It was horrifying, they are scarred for life,” Tiger Tops chairman Kristjan Edwards told the Post.
Dhrubo Jyoti is Deputy Executive Editor at Hindustan Times, where they help oversee the newspaper’s daily news and opinion coverage. They are part of the leadership team of the newspaper and their daily responsibilities include news selection, commissioning and editing, apart from planning and executing special projects. Apart from this, they write on national affairs at the intersection of caste and sexuality, with a focus on elections, politics and the lifeworlds of the caste marginalised. Formally trained in physics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and Bose Institute, Kolkata, they made a switch to studying journalism from the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. Over the past decade at Hindustan Times, they have worked at the National Desk, Page 1 team, Integrated Copy Desk and Special Stories Team, before running the opinion page as views editor for two years, and then moving back as Senior Editor of News Operations. In the past 12 years, they have reported on numerous national and state elections, specialising on caste-informed coverage of major moments in India’s history, and focussing on leading investigations into government accountability and social inequities. Their narrative non-fiction work aims to put Dalit voices at the core of India’s LGBTQIA+ movements.
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