Elephant Polo Championship Tournament Nepal

The World Elephant Polo Championship Tournament is held in southern Nepal every December. The games are played on a grass airstrip at Meghauly, on the northern edge of the Royal Chitwan National Park. Players and guests of the tournament are hosted by the Tiger Mountain Group and stay at Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge, an exclusive resort in the heart of the jungle. Approximately sixteen elephants participate in the World Elephant Polo Championships every year. The elephants belong to the Nepal National Parks and to Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge. These elephants are trained and maintained by skilled trainers, who stay with an elephant for many years.

The upcoming WEPA Championships will be held at Meghauly in Chitwan from 30 November to 6 December. World Elephant Polo Association and Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge www.tigermountain.com.

Asian Elephants in the wild have a lifespan of up to 60 years and can reach heights of anywhere between 6'6" (19.5 HH) to 9'8" (29 HH) at the shoulder.

Consuming up to 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of food a day, fully grown elephants can way 2.25 to 5.5 tons (2,041 to 4,990 kg).

Elephants have a gestation period of almost 22 months, giving birth to one calf every two to four years. At birth, elephants already weigh some 200 pounds (91 kilograms) and stand about three feet (1 metre) tall.

ELEPHANT POLO SAVING ELEPHANTS

At the beginning of the 20th Century there were an estimated 100,000 elephants in the former Siam, now Thailand. According to latest estimates, the elephant population in Thailand has dwindled to just over 4,000. Some 2,500 are domesticated elephants while a mere 1,500 roam freely in the wild.

Tragically, when logging was banned in Thailand the domesticated elephant population, and the mahout families dependant upon them for survival, were made redundant, with the result that many have been reduced to begging on the streets of the country’s cities. While the appearance on the streets of the noble animals that have loyally served man for centuries may appear at first to be charming novelty, it’s not. City streets are no place for elephants and those taken to the cities are generally poorly fed, or fed unsuitable food by tourists in exchange for a fee paid to their mahouts. For a few hundred bhat ignorant tourists can feed hamburgers or bottles of whisky to malnourished, poorly cared for elephants. This is illegal in Thailand and the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, amongst others, is fighting an uphill battle to keep elephants off the streets. However, most ‘city mahouts’ can think of no other option to sustain their elephant and their family.

The Anantara and Four Seasons elephant camps grew out of a desire to stop such practice and provide alternative lives for the elephants and their mahouts. Elephants and mahouts ‘rescued’ by Anantara and Four Seasons Tented Camp are rehabilitated in their native habitat. They are assured of medical care and sustenance and the mahout families taken care of. These elephants now earn their living taking tourists on safaris and teaching tourists to ride, handle and care for them on ‘mahout training’ programmes, and they are also used for playing polo.

Elephant polo both serves to raise awareness of the plight of elephants in Thailand, and raises considerable funds for elephant conservation. It also provides a new role for domesticated elephants. All elephants playing in the 2008 Kings Cup had been saved from the streets of Thailand’s cities. Some permanently and others for a period of rehabilitation and veterinary care prior to, and during, the tournament. As John Roberts, who heads up the Anantara Elephant Camp project and oversees the running of the tournament says, ‘Sadly we can’t rescue every elephant in Thailand, but the tournament gives us the opportunity to get more elephants off the streets and to ensure they receive veterinary care and suitable food and management.’

www.anantara.com