Day 130: Agra to Mathura

Ride bicycles, not elephants

With only a few days left in India, we realised we’d not really seen any other wildlife on our journey. We had an abortive attempt to see tigers in northern Karnatika, but otherwise, we’d only seen ox and camels pulling carts on the road, and a few elephants in various places.

A quick search and we managed to find wildlifesos.org who had an elephant conservation and care centre on our route - so we seized the opportunity and booked a tour.

We got to the centre a couple of hours early and had the chance to see the elephants coming in from their walk, and then we relaxed on the terrace and waited for the other people joining us on the tour to arrive.

First we were told about the reasons that these elephants needed to be rescued to this centre. 2,400 elephants are held in captivity, for a variety of reasons - circus performances (now banned), begging, tourist rides and temple animals. SOS Wildlife try to educate the owners to give up their animals, report those that are being badly treated and then provide a home for the elephants to live the rest of their lives in as much comfort as possible.

The footage we were shown of how a freshly poached elephant calf is “broken” by being beaten repeatedly for days until their will is broken, was absolutely dreadful to watch.

We were then taken round to meet the female elephants - the males are a little boisterous at present as they are in heat. As we were introduced to each of the elephants the litany of injuries they had when they arrived was horrific. Multiple animals had broken legs that had fused out of alignment, dreadful wounds and cracked toenails - a real hazard for such a large animal.

SOS Wildlife seem to be doing a great job of treating the ailments, as well as looking after the mental health of the elephants. They been through a lot of trauma in their lives and their keepers and vets try to give them a life in the centre that keeps them busy, healthy and well fed.

We were very impressed with the work they were doing and they sustainable way they were going about it. They’d previously managed to eradicate the cruel practice of dancing bears, primarily by educating the owners and giving them better ways to earn a living - a very successful approach.

Their current campaign is to educate tourists that riding elephants is bad for their backs, and reinforces elephant ownership that is only possible by beatings and cruelty. So, we made a pledge, not to ride, and we wholeheartedly support their slogan “Ride bicycles, not elephants.”

Before we left a couple of the team were keen to have a go at riding our tandem - and they made a pretty good job of it - despite the sanding car park, which was not the easiest surface.

You can read more about SOS Wildlife at wildlifesos.org and if you wish to join us in making a donation, you can do it here: https://give.wildlifesos.org/page/16138/donate/1

It costs them $3,000 USD per day to feed the elephants they’ve rescued so far, so they could do with some more cash.