It's bath time at the elephant camp on the outskirts of Gunung Leuser National Park in northern Sumatra - and tourists are allowed to help.
The mahouts, or elephant trainers, will give you a scrubbing brush, as their grey charge lies on her side to let the ritual begin.
In 2001, with the help of the Indonesian NGO, Indecon, the community banded together to form the Tangkahan Tourism Institute (Lembaga Pariwisata Tangkahan (LPT) and passed regulations prohibiting the exploitation of the surrounding forest.
And so the CRU or Conservation Response Unit was born - a team of Sumatran elephants and their mahouts that helps safeguard the national park to protect it from encroachment.
Wish this was happening in South Thailand.
After beating my head against the wall for 22 years and collecting 8,817 bags of rubbish by kayak, I'm so frustrated with the lack of awareness and unchecked, untrained tourism that ony cares about money I'm about to throw in the towel.
What's encouraging about this story is somebody is doing it right - please have a look at SOS - the Sumatran Orangutan Society - who are trying to stop the loss of Sumatra's Orangutan.
No comments:
Post a Comment