Tiger Tops Elephant Camp

Marie Stissing Jensen is Communications and Project Manager at Tiger Tops, and explains how the idea for the camp came about. “Tiger Tops lodge has had elephants since it started in 1964. It was a traditional safari outfit – elephant safaris, jeep safaris – a completely traditional way of doing tourism and what everyone else is doing these days still. We really wanted to change that. We always felt we were taking good care of the elephants, but were increasingly aware of the whole issue of captive elephants.”

The other issue was the use of the bull hook, a heavy metal tool traditionally used by the mahout – the rider, trainer and keeper – to control the elephant. “We looked at where it is used, and when it is used, and found that 95 percent of the time it was on an elephant safari when an elephant meets a tiger, and is stressed. That was the reason we stopped doing the safaris, to avoid those stressful situations where you have to control the elephant.”

Each day, the elephants are taken for jungle walks, and guests can walk alongside them. “This is something people love. Quite a few of our clients have done elephant safaris before, but this is a different perspective,” says Marie. “Where you used to be on top of the elephants, and see a lot of wildlife, you wouldn’t actually have an elephant experience. You wouldn’t see the elephant. You would see the head and the bum, that’s about it, but when you’re actually walking right next to it, you see the whole animal, what it eats, all the other wildlife...”

Even after dark, visitors are still aware of the elephants’ presence nearby, as they communicate with rumblings. “The elephants do tend to be drama queens,” says Chrissy Pratt, an elephant behaviourist, who advises at the Elephant Camp. “If a marmot runs through the camp the elephants will trumpet and all run together to comfort each other!”

Some visitors suggest keeping the elephants in the corrals all day so they don’t have to be ridden. “That would be a really sad alternative,” says Marie. “They wouldn’t be able to exercise, and they need to go to the river to cool down. To do that they’re walking with our guests, and they’re walking through villages, where there’s livestock and children. We can’t risk harming people, livestock or the elephant.”

Care of captive elephants in Nepal varies greatly from place to place. “It’s generally quite good,” says Marie. “You get places that take great care of their elephants, and places which, to be honest, are quite miserable.” The camp now serves as a pioneering tourism model in Nepal, demonstrating that people will pay to simply live alongside elephants – no selfies, no petting, no feeding and no riding – and that revenue from elephants and elephant welfare are not mutually exclusive. “That ripple effect is happening,” says Marie. “One of our neighbouring lodges is looking into building fences and creating paddocks for its elephants rather than chaining them up, and we’ve had people coming to see how we operate.”

After years working in sanctuaries in Thailand and Africa, Chrissy is impressed by the Tiger Tops model. “When I first came to Tiger Tops I had been working in Sauraha village on the edge of Chitwan National Park. It’s a tourist destination and a mecca for elephant riding. When I got to Tiger Tops, I almost started crying. A lot of elephants have been denied so much and their natural instincts are quite literally beaten out of them. They become just a robot; their spirit has gone. To come here, and see that these elephants have life and spark in their eyes, is wonderful.”