Two elephants, mother and daughter, stood on the streets of Central Thailand.

Pang Taweekoon and her young baby Nong Lynchee had been thrown out by the owner of a tourist camp. Having recently given birth, the mother elephant was unable to give tourists rides. The owner decided he could not afford to feed them. For the baby, whose name in Thai means lychee, the future likely meant being sold into a short life of walking the dusty streets as a side show.

Instead, the owner turned to a camp he’d heard of where a good wage by Thai standards was paid for the rental of non-working animals. Good fodder and good food was given to them, along with accommodation for the mahout, or elephant keeper.

For conservationist John Roberts, this naughty infant, named because she arrived at his camp during fruit season, has proven popular with his own guests.

“Though little Lynchee is a shoe-stealing, clothes-sucking monster, she is yet another star of the camp.” Roberts says Lynchee is one of the animals who have benefited the most from the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation, carried out by Anantara Resort Golden Triangle to “help elephants that cannot help themselves”.

“She had no future and would have been split at less than a year old. She will now live with her mother and family until full weaning age. She now has a chance at a long-term survival.”

The elephant rescue project began in November last year, with the first rescue on the streets of Bangkok’s Sukhumvit Soi 7.

“We have six elephants looked after purely by the Foundation who do no work at all, aside from meeting the guests, and 10 elephants who give rides for guests.”

Roberts and his teams runs two working elephant camps, determined to prove that, “with a little imagination and a bit of cash, looking after elephants and mahouts well need not also be bad business.” The concept of renting the animals was so not to create a demand in the market, a factor which had to be considered in animal rescue, he noted.

The camps take guests beyond the standard trek through the trees, providing real-life insights into the lives of elephants and the people who care for them. Guests get an introduction to mahout lifestyle and elephant driving, as well as treks in the saddle.

He says guests warm to the concept of creative and easy work for elephants, and appreciate the chance to make a tangible difference – most of the money spent on rescues and caring for the baby elephants comes from guest donations.

Because these revenues help funnel back into the welfare of animals either rescued, retired or found neglected, Roberts makes no apology for the fact that the experience costs more than a standard trek.

“We charge a realistic amount for what we do, and in turn are able to feed our working elephants very well and pay the mahouts to be good mahouts – as well as support their families.” For those who like the idea of luxury in the wilds, The Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle have joined the baby rescue scheme with a guest donation and sponsorship programme of their own.

Not only can you meet and learn to drive the working elephants, Four Seasons' guest have rescued a four year old baby, who spends every day at the Four Seasons Elephant Camp and spends her nights with the other rescued Foundation youngsters.

Roberts sees the downward pricing cycle of mass tourism ventures as being counter-productive to conservation.

“People will pay a reasonable amount for an imaginative activity and to see fat elephants and fat mahouts. There is no need to charge a minimum amount – that’s only to the detriment of elephants and their supporting community.”

The working camps also turn in enough profit to keep any business interested too, he says proudly.

Wild about isolation

From the forests of Devon to year-long stints in the Chihuahuan Desert and Northern Australia, Roberts developed a fondness for lonely terrain.

“I like living in the middle of nowhere, sitting in the wilderness and listening to the noises. And the best way to live in a place like that is to help conserve it.”

A life-long interest in conservation led him to spend 1999 to 2003 in Royal Chitwan National Park’s Tiger Top Lodge in Nepal. Economic necessity saw the move to Thailand, where Roberts was convinced he could run a camp and help look after the 160 acres of land as a nature reserve.

Robert has always liked the mahout lifestyle. “Mahouts have a lot of passed down knowledge. They take pride in their skill, yet don’t really worry about their place in society.

“In a way, mahouts are the forest cowboys of the East.”

First published in SilkWinds magazine