MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA – After pictures surfaced showing elephants used for tourist rides being beaten at Bandhavgarh National Park, a nature reserve in India, the government has decided that instead of banning the practice of torturing elephants they would require anyone who wants to ride one to first beat the animal with a bamboo pole. “I didn’t think I could do it at first,” said one woman who asked that her name not be used for fear of backlash from the public. “But I really wanted to ride an elephant. That’s why I came to India,” she said showing me the pictures she recently posted to Facebook. “They give you ear plugs to help block the screams,” she said and even she admitted that without them she might not have been able to go through with it. “Some of the people in our group were mad because the mahout’s refused to accept extra money to beat the elephant for them.” Deprok Pruni a local trying to get the practice of keeping elephants in captivity banned in India told us that elephants are big business here. “They don’t beat the tigers because tigers will fight back,” Pruni said. “The mahout know that if they start the beatings when the e;ephants are babies that they will be easier to control.” Elephants live for up to 48 years in captivity and they have no chance of ever escaping their captors Pruni explains shaking his head. He hopes that if the tourists are shamed for riding the elephants that demand for elephant rides will decrease and these gentle giants will be allowed to live their remaining lives free from daily beatings. Though he doesn’t see that happening anytime soon as we watch a group of tourists lining up with bamboo sticks in hand, ready to do anything in order to say they rode an elephant while in India.
American Tourists Visiting Indian Nature Reserve Told They Must Beat Elephant Before Riding It
