TAKE ACTION NOW
THERE ARE MANY WAYS YOU CAN HELP END THE THREATS TO ASIAN ELEPHANTS:
PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION (UK RESIDENTS ONLY)
PLEASE SIGN OUR WORLDWIDE CHANGE.ORG PETITION
VISIT GENUINE SANCTUARIES ONLY
DONATE
VISIT GENUINE SANCTUARIES ONLY
Genuine sanctuaries are those where elephants:
- Are rescued from existing service; not bred for tourism or captured from the wild
- Are free to roam and interact socially and are not chained or abused
- Do not have to give rides or perform tricks
- Are not subjected to the bullhook (or ankus), a wooden shaft with fierce iron hooks and spikes used to stab and rip baby and adult elephants in all their tenderest parts to terrify and subdue them to perform unnatural actions like rides, tricks and football
- Enjoy respectful and caring relationships with their mahouts, who are in turn adequately paid and supported
- Have access to professional veterinary care
- Are allowed to be elephants.
If a sanctuary permits visitors to feed or bathe elephants, suitable foodstuffs and clean appropriate waters must be provided; the animals must not be bathed for excessive periods merely to satisfy tourists.
We hope over time to build and publicise a list of good and respectable sanctuaries to assist you in choosing your holiday destination. Meanwhile do provide us with your feedback on any such places you visit
TOURIST DESTINATIONS
Tour companies listen to their customers and by letting them know you want to see elephants only as nature intended you send a powerful message.
If you’re visiting India, Thailand or other Asian countries, don’t attend attractions that offer elephant rides or that force these magnificent animals to perform tricks – and tell your tour operator why.
Many of these places call themselves “sanctuaries”, “orphanages” or “eco-tourist camps” but there are no laws governing the use of these descriptions and few have genuinely rescued elephants or provide conditions that can be described as respite. Only go to genuine sanctuaries [see note below] or to places where you can watch elephants in the wild.
TOUR OPERATORS
Many tour operators offer elephant attractions. With your help, we’ll urge tour operators who include such visits in their itinerary to drop elephant attractions from their programmes. Thanks to public pressure some have already done so.
We ask you to email tour operators who still include these attractions in their holiday offerings.
Click here to sign our petition
MPs
Through their diplomatic contacts with India and South East Asian countries, the UK government can influence change.
110 UK MPs signed a House of Commons motion (Early Day Motion 436 of 2014) on Asian elephants in the Parliamentary session that finished in March 2015. This link lists all the MPs who have signed the motion.
A later EDM (45 of 2015) sponsored by STAE garnered a similarly high number of MP supporters.
INDIAN PRIME MINISTER AND INDIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER IN LONDON
Please write to these key figures. In your letter you could make any of the following points:
- The survival and welfare of elephants in India is under serious threat
- Urge India to intensify its efforts to end the capture of elephants from the wild. Explain that you know this is illegal under Indian law but despite this it continues on a significant scale.
- Please urgently end Pajan – the brutal process of ‘taming’ wild elephants designed to break their spirit. Point out that this is damaging India’s good name
- Welfare standards for captive elephants used in tourist attractions, temples, processions and festivals are generally poor – most elephants are kept in isolation with inadequate food, water and shelter. Explain that you know that guidelines for the management of elephants have been in place since 2008 but stress that these are rarely observed in practice and also need to be strengthened
- Urge India to redouble its efforts to address the problems of human – elephant conflict.
- Say you support Save the Asian Elephants and ask them to collaborate with STAE
The address for the Indian Prime Minister is:
Mr Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India
South Block
Raisina Hill
New Delhi – 110011
India
Prime Minister of India
South Block
Raisina Hill
New Delhi – 110011
India
(no email address available. Other contact methods are on pmindia.gov.in)
The address for the Indian High Commissioner is:
His Excellency Mr Gaitri Issar Kumar
High Commissioner of India
High Commission of India
India House
Aldwych
London
WC2B 4NA
And by email: info.london@hcilondon.in
Representative offices in London of other South East Asian governments with surviving wild Asian elephants to whom we also ask you to write are:
Royal Thai Embassy
29-30 Queen’s Gate
London, SW7 5JB
Tel: 0207 589 2944
csinfo@thaiembassyuk.org.uk
High Commission of Sri Lanka
13 Hyde Park Gardens
London W2 2LU
Tel: 020 7262 1841
mail@slhc-london.co.uk
Embassy of Nepal
12A Kensington Palace Gardens
London W8 4QU
info@nepembassy.org.uk
eon@nepembassy.org.uk
Embassy of Vietnam
12-14 Victoria Road
London W8 5RD
Tel: 020 7937 1912
consular@vietnamembassy.org.uk
Embassy of Myanmar
19a Charles street
London
WIJ 1DX
0207 148 0740
ambassadoroffice@myanmarembassylondon.com
High Commission of Malaysia
45-46 Belgrave Square
London SW1X 8QT
mwlondon@kln.gov.my
Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia
38 Grosvenor Square
London,W1K 2HW
kbri@btconnect.com
High Commission for Bangladesh
28 Queens Gate
London SW7 5JA
hc@bhclondon.org.uk
Embassy of Bhutan
2,Windacres, Warren Road
Guildford GU1 3HG
United Kingdom
mrutland@aol.com
Embassy of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Asia House
63 New Cavendish Street
London W1G 7LP
enquiries@asiahouse.co.uk
Royal Embassy of Cambodia
64 Brondesbury Park
Willesden Green
London NW6 7AT
cambodianembassy@btconnect.com
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
51 Portland Place
London W1B 1JL
political@chinese-embassy.org.uk
