Travels in Nepal # 63 Elephant Breeding Centre
Elephant Breeding Centre, Nepal
After our canoe ride on the river in Chitwan National Park we went on an hour’s visit to the Elephant Breeding Centre. This is a government run agency attempting to breed elephants. It is open to the public every day and while it is a little depressing to realise that the elephants are tied up at night the centre seems to have the right motives and methods.
Elephant Breeding Centre, Nepal
I am no expert on elephant breeding and my comments are merely a reflection of those made at the time by our guide for the afternoon. The elephants are tied up in an enclosure each night to stop them raiding the nearby farming land and doing immense damage to crops. The village and farming communities rely on their crops to eke out a meagre living. Their attitudes to the elephants would quickly change if they were allowed to rampage through the crops at random. There is a big enough problem with the occasional rogue rhinoceros raiding the crops. One rhino came through a nearby crop that night and we saw the damage next morning.
I have recently returned from a trip to nepal, and while at the elephant breeding centre, i was slightly horrified at the fact that the elephants front legs are tied together and so are the back, also, this was not a night time occurence as we visited the breeding centre in the day after the canoe ride.
Hi there Matthew,
Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment. I agree that it is somewhat distressing to see the elephants tied up for the night. I explained the reasons why in the article above.
It was my understanding that the elephants are usually out in the rain-forest during the day and only come in to the centre in the late afternoon for the night.