BENGALURU: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has sent a letter to Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, to ban close-contact elephant tourism activities following the recent death of a tourist at Dubare Elephant Camp in Karnataka, and an attack on a mahout by a captive elephant at Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh.
The letter urges an immediate nationwide prohibition on elephant rides, bathing experiences, selfies and other close-contact tourist activities involving captive elephants to promote safe, ethical, observation-based tourism focused on free-ranging elephants in the wild. It also requests the introduction of mechanical elephant safaris that demonstrate lifelike features of the animal while maintaining touristy and cultural experiences without troubling living elephants.
“Tourism should not be at the cost of animal suffering or human safety. When elephants lash out, often both humans and elephants pay the price,” said PETA India’s vice-president of policy Khushboo Gupta. “Acting decisively to end close-contact captive elephant tourism and transitioning to safe, ethical observations of elephants in nature is the need of the hour.”
The letter also highlights that elephants in captivity, including those used for tourism, are typically controlled through fear and physical punishment. Sharp weapons are always kept nearby and the animals are chained for long periods when not in use. When elephants attack humans, beatings and other punishments can follow, which only make the animals more frustrated and upset.