The Elephant Ride Question in Chitwan

For decades, the postcard image of Chitwan was a row of tourists on the back of an elephant, wading through tall grass towards a rhino. Until quite recently almost every package to Sauraha included an elephant-back safari, and many travellers still arrive expecting one. Walk down Sauraha's main street and you will still pass signs for elephant rides and elephant bathing.

At the same time, attitudes have shifted. Travellers read more about how captive elephants are trained and kept, animal welfare groups have run campaigns in Nepal, and several of the best-known lodges have stopped offering rides altogether. If you are trying to decide what to do, it helps to understand where Chitwan's working elephants came from, how they live and what the alternatives are.

Elephants have worked in the Terai for centuries. Under the Rana prime ministers, from the mid-19th century to 1951, Chitwan was a royal hunting reserve, and great shikar hunts used long lines of elephants to drive tigers and rhino towards the guns. The most famous, in 1911, brought King George V of Britain to Chitwan, where his party shot dozens of tigers and rhino in a few weeks.

After the national park was created in 1973, the government kept its own elephants in hattisar, elephant stables, for patrols against poachers, for carrying staff through flooded grassland and for research. Elephants are still used in the rhino census, when teams on elephant-back sweep the tall grass to count animals, and in the monsoon they can go where jeeps cannot. Near Sauraha, at Khorsor, the government runs an elephant breeding centre where calves are born and raised.

Alongside the government elephants, private owners, often hotels or businesses in Sauraha, bought elephants to give tourists rides in the community forests of the buffer zone. These are the elephants most visitors meet, and they are the ones at the heart of the debate.

Asian elephants are highly social, intelligent animals that walk many kilometres a day in the wild. In captivity, many spend long hours chained by one or two legs when not working. Traditional training, used to make a young elephant accept a mahout, has often involved pain, fear and hunger. Elephants carrying a wooden howdah and four adults several times a day, in heat that can pass 35 °C, can suffer back injuries and foot problems.

Captive elephants in Nepal have also been found to carry tuberculosis, which can pass between elephants and people. Researchers and vets have worked with the government and private owners on testing and treatment. None of this means every owner or mahout is cruel; many care deeply for their animals. But riding as an industry depends on keeping elephants in conditions that fall far short of what they need.

• Chaining for long hours when not working
• Training methods that rely on fear and pain
• Heavy loads, especially howdahs carrying four adults
• Heat stress and foot injuries on hard ground
• Disease risks, including tuberculosis, in captive herds

Every captive elephant has a mahout, called a phanet in Nepal, and often a second handler. Many phanet come from Tharu, Bote and other local families, and some have worked with elephants all their lives. For them, elephants are not just a job but family members and a source of pride. When tourists stop paying for rides, their income suffers, and that matters.

The answer is not to blame mahouts but to shift what tourists pay for. Lodges that have stopped rides have mostly kept their elephants and mahouts, replacing riding with walks, observation and care. If more visitors pay for these kinder experiences, more owners will follow.

Here is how we see the main elephant experiences on offer around Chitwan. Our view is based on welfare guidance and on what we see on the ground, and practices differ between owners, so ask questions before you pay.

Some lodges, Tiger Tops among them, have stopped elephant-back safaris and now offer walks alongside their elephants, where you follow them through the forest, watch them feed and bathe, and learn from the mahouts about their characters and care. Animal welfare groups have also helped build chain-free corrals for some elephants in Chitwan, giving them space to move freely at night.

At the government breeding centre at Khorsor, you can watch elephants and their calves at close but safe range, and learn how the breeding programme supports the park's working herd. Go in the morning or late afternoon, when the elephants are back from grazing. And if you want the real thing, look for wild elephants: they move through Chitwan and are seen more often in Bardia and Shuklaphanta in the far west, where wild herds cross the border with India.

If you want to include any elephant experience in your trip, a few direct questions will tell you a lot about how the animals are kept. Good operators are happy to answer them, and they usually raise the subject before you do. Vague answers, or pressure to book a ride or a bath on the spot, are a warning sign.

It also helps to watch for yourself. Elephants that sway or bob their heads repeatedly while standing in one place are often showing stress from long periods of confinement. Visible wounds, chains that have rubbed the skin and very thin animals are all signs to walk away. Healthy elephants spend much of their time feeding, moving and dusting themselves, and they interact calmly with their mahouts.

• Are the elephants ridden at all, and if so, how often and with what load?
• Where and how do the elephants spend the night: chained or in a corral?
• How many hours a day do they graze or forage freely?
• How are young elephants trained, and by whom?
• Do the elephants get regular veterinary checks, including for tuberculosis?
• Do the mahouts receive a fair and regular wage?

There is a practical point too. An elephant-back safari covers a small area of community forest close to Sauraha, usually in a busy loop with other elephants. A jeep can take you far deeper into the national park, a canoe brings you silently alongside crocodiles and birds, and a walk with good guides teaches you to read the jungle yourself. Most of our guests who have done both say their best sightings came from the jeep, the canoe or on foot.

Rules and practices in Chitwan change. Some hotels have announced an end to rides, others continue, and the government has discussed rules for captive elephant care. We will keep updating our advice, and we are always happy to talk it through before you book. Check current status before you travel.