The Thai Elephant Conservation Center spans 300 acres and serves as a vital sanctuary for the nation’s beloved elephants. With a dedicated elephant hospital and training school, this center plays an essential role in the conservation of Thai elephants. It provides medical care, rehabilitation, and education to both elephants and their caregivers. Visitors can learn about the importance of elephant conservation and witness the unique bond between the elephants and their trainers. Through engaging experiences and educational programs, the center strives to raise awareness about the threats facing these gentle giants. By promoting ethical treatment and sustainable practices, the Thai Elephant Conservation Center helps ensure a brighter future for elephants in Thailand.
Nestled in the heart of Thailand, the Thai Elephant Conservation Center spans an expansive 300 acres dedicated to the protection and rehabilitation of the country’s iconic elephants. As home to an elephant hospital and a training school, this facility provides essential medical care and training for elephants in need, playing a crucial role in their conservation journey. The center’s mission is to safeguard these magnificent creatures from the threats they face, including habitat loss and exploitation.
Visitors to the center have the unique opportunity to witness the deep bond between elephants and their caregivers. Through various programs, they can learn about the challenges elephants encounter and the efforts being made to protect them. The center emphasizes education, encouraging everyone to appreciate and respect these extraordinary animals while highlighting the importance of their conservation.
The training school not only focuses on the rehabilitation of elephants but also on educating local communities about sustainable practices and the ethical treatment of these animals. This holistic approach fosters a sense of responsibility and connection among visitors and locals alike.
Overall, the Thai Elephant Conservation Center stands as a pivotal institution in the fight to protect Thailand’s elephants. Through combined efforts in medical care, education, and community engagement, it ensures that future generations will have the opportunity to admire and cherish these gentle giants.
ศูนย์อารักษ์ช้างไทย (เมืองลำปาง, ไทย) - รีวิว - ThailandAgoda.com
Attractions
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Thai Elephant Conservation Center is perched on a picturesque hilltop overlooking Km. 28-29 Lampang - Chiang Mai Highway Wiang Tan, Hang Chat, 52190, Thailand
Many tourists to Thailand want to see elephants in a safe setting, safe both for visitors and for the elephants. The challenge is there are many tour guides with slick marketing materials laid out in abundance at all the hotels offering day trips to what seems like an endless array of elephant “sanctuaries.” Most of these “santuaries” are in fact private, for-profit zoos. That’s fine and is a creative way to use the natural interest of tourists to provide jobs and care for elephants. Even in the rare cases where a “santuary” is non-profit, the tour guide operator is definitely for profit. Again, that’s fine, but when their marketing material suggest, imply, or outright claim they are morally superior to all other “sanctuaries,” they are playing on people’s fears and perpetuating myths.A good “tell” about which “sanctuaries” and guides are being a little deceptive is whether their literature clearly says where the “sanctuary” is located. Most treat it like some sort of military secret, as if some secret elephant stealing society will sneak in at night to snatch the animals. Actually, they just don’t want tourists showing up directly, paying the entrance fee, and avoiding the 200% markup by the tour guide.Elephants are not actively (or legally) hunted in Thailand. There are many wild elephants in the numerous national parks across Thailand. In addition, the government controls several elephant preservation wilderness areas — not parks — to shield wild elephants from loss of habitat and shield people from letting their stupidity get themselves killed by an elephant. The elephant population declined over the last 100 years for many factors with the two biggest probably being loss of habitat and the mechanization of agriculture. Thailand had a huge population of elephants because they were a principle source of labor for most farmers.Elephants don’t need “sanctuary” per se, they need to conservation efforts to preserve habitat for wild elephants, and to provide a controlled setting for domesticated elephants.With the contextual explanation above, the Thai Elephant Conservation Center is legitimate. The center is run by the government. There are no slick brochures castigating competitors because they let visitors pet or bathe the elephants. Tourists with a car can drive there (about 1 hour from Chiang Mai) without hassle. Or they can hire a red-car or other ‘driver’ service to take them. Hiring a tour guide is unnecessary (there are plenty of facilitators on the Center), but this is also an option.You will not be able to bathe the elephant or pet them. You can feed them in a very controlled setting. During their presentation of the history of the elephant in Thailand, some guests are allowed to play games with the elephants. My ~60 year old sister played catch with one, and that was easily the highlight of her trip.I am sure many people are happy to spend 8-10 times more to visit one of the commercial “sanctuaries,” and maybe some of those outfits are even a fair exchange when they include travel, meals, and turn the 2 hour experience into an 8 hour day-long tour. However, this is a legitimate elephant conservation center where you will learn more, spend far less, and what you do spend will go to honest conservation efforts.
This is a very large park that is owned by the Government. The grounds are beautiful and pretty much well maintained. The staff were friendly. The show was pretty good and the Elephant ride was good. Sometimes the shuttle was a little late but beats walking the large park. They have a hotel and homestay on site and an Elephant hospital. Overall a great activity for the entire family.
Elephants are cared for better than we care for our pets. The conservatory is taking amazing care of all the elephants and it is obviously how much they love each and every elephant. Great for families. See, feed and touch the elephants. Learn the truth about these majestic animals.
We saw about 12 elephants of varying ages. We had a short ride on one, shorter than we expected. A few times we got to feed the elephants, for 50B. The staff spoke in both Thai and English. There were two shows showing the elephant training. We got to see them play in the water. During a parade one elephant beat the marching drum.
Big conservation center, I was the only visitor, got a quick tour, visited the Elephant hospital, there was also a young Elephant, enjoyed my visit!
So sad. No one from the staff was able to give us a correct information for what to do and where to go. Bad experience, i’m sorry
Everyone should experience the Elephant Conservation Center at least once in their life. It is educational and hands on experience with the elephants.
Any place that is letting anyone — staff, let alone tourists — ride on elephants is not a sanctuary. This causes the elephants pain and they will only do it because they have been brutalised into accepting it.
We were looking for a non-touristic elephant sanctuary. It’s now blatantly obvious that all such centres have re-branded with a stated focus on elephant welfare and are in fact offering the exact same components than the previous show centres: elephant riding, elephant show etc. This one is no different and whilst it has an elephant “hospital” (two covered areas with elephants receiving IVs) which hopefully serves to care for the animals there, the rest feels like a slightly rundown tourist spot. There was zero information provided, with small groups of visitors walking around a little confused. Most of the staff cannot speak English and even with a translation app communication was a little challenging. Walking alongside elephants was the highlight, but not sure I’d recommend this spot, which is quite far from Chiang Mai. On this, if you do go, hire a driver directly (around THB3000), the tours offered from town are really pointless considering the rudimentary state of the venue. Overall, if you’re looking for a true sanctuary location not sure there really is one.