Charitable elephant polo

Like every year, Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas will host the annual King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament on the grounds next to the Anantara Riverside Bangkok Hotel by the Chao Phraya River from March 8-11. Numerous teams, including professional horse polo players and celebrities, will compete in the event. A total of 20 ex-street elephants will take part in the event during which they will receive full veterinary check-upss from the Zoological Parks Organisation of Thailand and Department of Livestock Development. All these pachyderms are given essential vitamins, food and special care under strict rules to ensure that they are well cared for at all times. Under a “no micro-chip, no game” rule, Anantara guarantees that all participating elephants have been domestically bred, not caught from the wild or smuggled in from neighbouring countries. The four-day festival will feature the Opening Parade, Children’s Educational Day, Ladies Day known as the “Bangkok Ascot”, elephant-related activities for visitors with children, a food market and music by popular bands and DJs. Now in its 16th year, the tournament has become one of the biggest charitable events in Southeast Asia with more than 50 million baht raised and donated to projects that improve the lives of Thailand’s wild and domesticated elephant population. Since 2001, the funds have been donated to projects relating to elephants in Thailand and neighbouring countries, such as the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang, the Government Elephant Hospital in Krabi, farmer/elephant conflict mitigation projects in two Thai and one Tanzanian national parks, the protected forest in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, and the planting of an elephant corridor of 4,000 trees in Hua Hin district, Prachuap Khiri Khan, to stop farmer vs elephant conflicts. Proceeds from this year’s event will be donated to various projects, including the Zoological Parks Organisation of Thailand that supports veterinary and educational projects to better the lives of elephants and mahouts in Surin where former street elephants face hardships; Southeast Asia’s first workshop to teach mahouts and vets the benefits of environmental enrichment; and the construction of a watch tower in a village whose crops are raided by wild elephants. The event also will benefit the Thai Elephant Therapy Project, which has been underway since 2009 in conjunction with Chiang Mai University’s Department of Occupational Therapy, future clinics to include children with Down syndrome and other conditions until the end of 2018, and Asia’s first workshop to show traditional elephant trainers and camp owners the benefits of positive reinforcement training for captive elephants with additional workshops this year in Myanmar for teams responsible for over 200 elephants. Anantara has its own elephant conservation project which was launched in 2005. The Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Chiang Rai has rescued and looked after over 60 ex-street elephants.

Visit anantaraelephantpolo.com.