The Olive Journey: A day with the elephants - Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary, Pahang, Malaysia

Saturday, July 30, 2011

A day with the elephants - Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary, Pahang, Malaysia

Into the river for a bath

Malaysia Department of Wildlife and National Parks set up the Elephant Relocation Team in 1974 and Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary was officially established in 1989. For the last 25 years, more than 300 elephants have been relocated due to human-elephant conflict. The center aims to promote public awareness of the elephant’s plight in Malaysia and support research in the conservation of elephants. Hence, this center would be an ideal place to help maintain healthy elephant population in Malaysia and prevent its extinction. Currently, it is estimated that the jungle of Peninsular Malaysia has about 1,500 -1,800 elephants.

Riding the elephant

This is a place where the kids love it very much and during school holidays or weekends, buses of school children from all over the country will visit this site to have hands on feeding the elephant, riding the elephants and bathing the elephants. Currently, there are 40 elephants in the center and ten (Mahouts and Khoonkie) are trained to help in the operation of capturing wild elephants.

As much as the kids enjoy the place so are the foreign tourists and locals. Located about 170km from Kuala Lumpur, it takes about one and half hour driving on the expressway and after exiting Lanchang, you have another 15km to get to the Sanctuary. Though the center opens from 9.00am to 5.00pm, the best time to be there is at 2pm as most activities will take place at that time. If you are coming in a big group, it would be better to call the center for reservation since only 150 visitors are allowed to ride and bathe the elephant each day. We came in the morning and had to wait until 2pm for the main activities to happen.

The skin of an elephant's trunk

Having the experience of interacting with human, these elephants are very friendly, playful and they listen to their skillful master very well. Some of these elephants are star and celebrities as they are used in the movie, Anna and the King, featuring Jodie Foster. However, security needs to be observed at all times since after all they are wild animals. Their bodies are rough and their hairs are stiff. You may want to wear pants when riding them.

There is no admission fee but you are encouraged to donate in the cause of the elephants. The center operates on government grants but maintaining the place and animals are not cheap. This place is a great place for kids!