Thailand looks askance at Indonesia elephant request

Thailand looks askance at Indonesia elephant request

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP): Thailand, buffeted by political and economic crises, has a new worry: someone is trying to steal its elephant-training know-how.

The someone is Indonesia, and the motive is to build up an echo-tourism industry around the mighty beasts, according to officials and animal experts quoted in Friday's edition of the Bangkok Post.

The report said tourism and forestry officials, as well as the private Friends of the Asian Elephant foundation, are suspicious of a request from Indonesia to borrow a dozen trained elephants to help in rounding up their own wild jumbos.

More than a decade and a half ago, Thailand lent Indonesia four trained elephants to help "civilize" rampaging jumbos that terrorize communities on the island of Sumatra, but they were never returned, the report said.

Thai elephants have been called the best trained in the world, and they show off their skills annually to visitors from around the world at a well-attended elephant roundup in the northeast. Now there are fears Indonesia is trying to grab this specialized tourist market.

Thai forestry department, suspicious about the matter, had refused a number of requests for the elephants, but influential people now have revived the issue, said Soraida Salwala, founder of the elephant foundation.

The department's wildlife research division director, Chawan Tunhikorn, was quoted as saying he did not oppose the request, but needed a clearer statement of purpose from the Indonesians.

He suggested it was strange that Indonesia would request younger elephants rather than older ones with more experience, and asked for fewer mahouts - elephant trainers - than would seem necessary.