Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary

I had the privilidge of riding an elephant the first time I visited the Elephant Sanctuary in Kuala Gandah several years ago. I was there to experience and write about the place and what the team there was doing for elephants in this country.

Most of the elephants here are used to help translocate wild elephants that are considered a threat to human settlements (hrrmmph! more like humans are a threat to them, if you ask me).

When a wild elephant or its herd is identified as a "threat" the translocation team tracks down the wild elephant, sedates it, chains its legs to a tree and waits till the next morning to move it.

If at sunrise, the wild - and by now enraged - elephant has not escaped, the trained elephants are used to flank the captured wild elephant. This calms the wild elephant down. The flanking elephants then lead the captured one to a truck, where they are all transported to a barge. Down the river they go, usually to the Taman Negara National Park, where the elphant is released. Bet there is an over population of elephants there now. Lately they have been collaring the released elephants to track their movements. Most try to find their way back to reunite with their herds. Other's destroy their collars somehow.

Anyway, the guys at the sanctuary have got smart over the years. Now they charge visitors an entrance fee and this helps towards the running of the place. We made this trip on Chinese New Years day and it was crowded. The place was just overflowing with people. It looks like a much better set up now, compared to the run down struggling centre it was before. They have a few sponsors too these days.