Hughes Krupica community CSR 2nd follow up visit to Phuket Eco Elephant Park

Hughes Krupica paid its first visit to the Phuket Eco Elephant Parl on 17th November 2020 details of which can be found here: https://www.hugheskrupica.com/csr-esg/hughes-krupica-visit-to-phuket-eco-elephant-park/

In keeping with the principle of ensuring that a contribution is made beyond a one-off superficial observation of a project, Hughes Krupica’s team wished to revisit the Eco Elephant Park to see how things were 5 months on when tourism revenue and the economic climate remains desolate pending vaccinations, travel restrictions in-country and overseas being modified, and the inevitable lag period of recovery.

The 2nd visit was structured differently to the first. The elephant family were provided with a fruit buffet which is considered best for their diet on an irregular basis to manage sugar and energy levels.

The Hughes Krupica team took turns to cut the fruit and sugar cane. It becomes apparent very quickly that even preparation of food for elephants is taxing physical work. The efforts of the carers of elephants should not be underestimated.

The criticism often directed toward elephants involved in tourism is that elephants should not be ‘put to work’. However, elephants which are placed in sanctuaries by virtue of birth, protection, geography or other circumstance are actually healthier if they work and exercise. They are social animals and are excited when they are visited and provided offerings from visitors and tourists.

The elephant family had walked around the substantial grounds of the Phuket Eco Elephant Park and had also splashed and had fun bathing by themselves.

Beyond the provision of fruit for the day, as remarked upon in the report of our first visit – elephants need to consume as a minimum 10% of their body mass in food, per day. This requires significant planning and resource to maintain at level where they are healthy. The Hughes Krupica team planted elephant grass roots in 5 root clusters along loosely ploughed lanes from baskets in the midday sun. Again, this provides a quick sharp lesson on the extent of the effort required by full time carers and operators to use their resource effectively to provide for the elephants. For those unused to hard physical labour and heat, the activity is fairly tiring after just a short while.

We will return again in 3 months to inspect the maturity and quality of the elephant grass and hopefully feed this to the elephant family.

If any of our clients, contacts or connections wish to be involved in this type of community activity, the contact details are on this page.

We strongly recommend Phuket Eco Elephant Park as a positive learning experience for children and adults on elephant care in a positive environment created for them.