Mahouts bring their elephants into the city for the same reasons that the sons and daughters of rice farmers try their luck as waiters, golf caddies and massage therapists in Bangkok: They need the money.īut to critics, elephants in the city highlight the persistent impunity of lawbreakers in Thailand, a country with no shortage of rules but gaping lapses in enforcement. Many Thais say they serve as a daily reminder of the inequalities in Thailand, the gap between provincial poverty and urban wealth. Only a tiny fraction come into Bangkok - usually no more than half a dozen each evening - but they are hard to miss.
The government says there are 3,837 domesticated elephants in Thailand today. "An angry elephant can destroy cars and make trouble - and then we have responsibility for the damage." The police shy away from detaining the elephants' handlers, also known as mahouts, because the officers fear they will not be able to control the animals on their own. "To be honest, nobody wants to do this job, nobody wants to deal with the elephants," said Prayote Promsuwon, who is in charge of the Stray Elephant Task Force, which was formed after an elephant handler, fleeing the police, raced his elephant the wrong way down a large Bangkok boulevard, causing traffic chaos. Nor did the team of undercover elephant enforcers who periodically cruise through Bangkok on motorcycles scouting for the beasts. The creation of a Stray Elephant Task Force in 2006 did not keep the elephants off city streets. The police shrug, politicians periodically order crackdowns and animal lovers despair. Occasionally the elephants knock off the side-view mirrors from cars or stumble into gutters and cut themselves on sharp objects. For at least two decades the giant gray beasts have plodded through this giant gray city, stopping off at red-light districts and tourist areas where their handlers peddle elephant snacks of sugar cane and bananas to passers-by.
BANGKOK, Thailand - Of all the illegal activities that animate the streets of Bangkok - the vendors who hawk pirated DVDs and fake watches, the brothels that call themselves saunas - one stands out more than others.Įlephants are not supposed to saunter down the city's streets as they do almost every night.
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