Thai elephants return to village after years due to coronavirus lockdown

Mass migration of elephants in Thailand has caused a massive concern among the residents of a village where they are traveling to. Elephant handlers have suffered a huge blow due to coronavirus pandemic and the shut down of the economy, which has forced them to take back their animals to their village. Elephant handlers, also known as mahouts are an ethnic part of Thailand where for generations they have been rearing giant mammals for living. However, due to the international travel ban, the livelihoods of these mahouts have come under uncertainty and they fear that their elephants would eventually die from starvation. 

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According to reports, about thousands of handlers and their elephants have returned to their villages in the past two months. Media reports suggest that more than 90 elephants are living alongside 400 villagers, which has caused fear among the people because of their sometimes unpredictable temperament. The villagers fear that these elephants can at any moment ransack their homes and destroy crops and properties. There is also another challenge that looms large on these mahouts as feeding 300 kilograms of plants each day to each elephant is not an easy task. 

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Some are happy

However, some villagers are also happy to see these elephants return to the village from tourist camps, where they regularly faced abuse. One of the villagers while talking to the media said that he was happy to see those elephants return home as he had not seen some of those elephants for years. The man whose elephants have never worked in a tourist camp said that he grew up with some of those mammals who have returned home due to pandemic. 

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(Image Credit: AP)