World Elephant Day was this week, and it prompted me to think about the difference between watching elephants and helping them. Chris - Hands Up Holidays
[email protected] For the families I work with, an elephant encounter is meant to be more than something you watch from a jeep window. It is a chance to understand the pressures elephants face, and to take part in work that supports them. Asian elephants are endangered, with fewer than 50,000 remaining in the wild across their entire range. The biggest threat is not poaching but space. Roughly 70% of Asian elephants now live outside formally protected areas, so the forest paths their herds have followed for generations increasingly run through farms, roads and villages. That squeeze looks different in every country. So does the way a family can genuinely help. you can help at an elephant park where no riding takes place. Many of the elephants spent decades in logging camps or the trekking trade before arriving, and are re-learning what it means simply to be elephants again. You can help prepare their meals, walk alongside them through the forest, and watch them socialise and bathe in the river. It is unhurried, observational work rather than a photo opportunity, and that is exactly the point. I have written more about what giving back can actually look like for families travelling in Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and Namibia (going live soon!). Read the full piece here. ELEPHANTS LIVING A LIFE WITHOUT PAIN.