Elephants need a daily bath to keep their skin in good condition, the ones you see round about the Calangute Candolim area have to walk there from the temple out towards Ingos market, on burning tarmac, and as far as I could find out are used simply to get money from gullable tourists for getting their photos taken. The so called "Holy men" seem interested only in the money aspect, and do not care for those poor animals in the way they deserve. I for one would not encourage their enterprise. I hope someone will come on here to tell me otherwise, but I doubt it, as I've been told by more than one local that the animals welfare is the last thing on these peoples minds Alan

International Animal Rescue highlight the living conditions of many such elephants in Goa this article
http://www.iar.org.uk/news/2007/apr07-2.shtml

I had heard all about this from a few locals who also dissaproved of the treatment of the elephants and also the amount of money the mahouts were making, a lot of it not going where it should have been. Considering the vast amounts of money that is being made from tourists, the elephants deserve better.

I agree with you on many of the issues raised, the money is taken under the pretext of that it goes to the "handicapped" as they say,and i hate to see them walking on the hot tarmac, but they can walk miles without being harmed. but i know and see for myself they do get watered/bathed everyday as you can see them at many of the different houses and bars along their routes and they stop everynight to collect food/leaves etc because i often talk to the mahoots when walking the dog. Laxmi the huge elephant that was around for years in candolim has now been retired she is 85years old, jaysheer the smaller one is 25 years old. Its like everything in Goa if you try to stop the tourists going on them it will be the anmal that suffers, and we were told no more elephants can come into goa.

Cant say I've ever spoken with anyone who have ever seen the elephants in any river or pool at the end of their days drudgery, neither would it seem has any of the concerned animal charities. I see them every morning, and I can assure Poppetjay that the decorations on the elephants are the same ones as the previous day and there has been no attempt to bathe these poor animals. Several books and articles I've read make the point that elephants suffer greatly from walking for long distances on hot tarmac roads. I'm afraid any assurances given by these keepers, as regards the treatment of their charges, I would take with a very large pinch of salt. Alan

I am not happy about the elephants at the spice plantation near Ponda who spend hours lying in the water constantly sucking up water and spraying the tourists sitting on their backs. The mahout is always giving them a whack with a stick to make them perform. Has anyone else seen this?

I repeat again i am against the trade of elephants being used to make money, but i have seen an elephant which comes by everyday being washed and watered whether it be with a hose, and fed.
this is india or have people forgotten this fact and you are never going to change their attitudes towards the treatment of people let alone an animal!!!!! so unless ALL visitors to goa stop riding or taking pictures of these elephants its never going to stop.
same as the dog situation people come over here fed the stray dogs for 2 weeks or 6 months then leave !!!!!!! say no more

I also hate the mis treatment of any animals especially elephants as they are grand beautiful creatures. I prefer not to encourage any use of the animals in the tourist industry although saying that I took a trip to Hampi over the monsoon and there was a wonderful elephant in one of the Hindu temples. The public offered the elephant either bananas, coconut or money. When it received bananas the elephant would eat them straight away, with the coconuts it either cracked them open it it's muth or placed them on the floor to eat later. When the elephant was given money it would give it to it's 'master' and then 'bless' the giver by placing it's trunk on their head. It was amazing to watch and the elephant looked well cared for, although it did have a chain on it's leg (but not chained down), it was lovely to see although I would prefer to see it in the wild...

We had a fantastic opportunity in Laos a couple of years ago, we stumbled accross an elephant camp ( only 4 there) it was extremely remote and no other tourists there, the mahout took us through rivers and jungle for 1 hour and it was beautiful, the relationship between a good mahout and thier elephant can be exteremely loving and I really do think this elephant was very loved and cared for, the mahout said he only lets his elephant work for 2 hours max a day so he could rest.
And sure enough the place only accepted visitors for 2 hours a day, this was an example of a happy elephant with a mahout who loves and cares for it , I see nothing wrong with that.

I absolutely abhor seeing elephants being led down hot dusty streets in Calangute etc just to make money , often all day long , it is disgusting , please do not give money to these 'holy men' this should not be happening it makes my blood boil.

When ever we see the elephants coming down candolim/calangute we ALWAYS buy banana's from the children on the side of the road to feed to the elephants rather that then give money to the scrounger's in orange clothes.

Last season we had one the elephants camped outside our apartment, In all honesty I never saw it being ill treated, it was fed well, and every night was taken to the well for a good hose down.

Lin

Having seen the working elephants in other parts of India I am inclined to agree that the elephants in Goa are relatively well off. Apart from not being in a group which will certainly cause the youngsters and females some stress, I think that they are fairly well looked after. Buying an elephant is a huge financial outlay, and it would make no sense not to look after your investment. I am sure that walking along hot hard roads is not the best thing for their feet, but if an elephant went lame how many tourists would pay the so called priests. I personally never give them money but have fed the elephants many times. If tourists did not pay for photos the elephants would not be there, and would probably be in work camps somewhere. Would they be any happier? I am not sure.

Well the season is just starting and I have to eat my words about the elephants looking ok in Goa, I have just seen the first elephant of the season at the top of the road near the marinha dorahda, and it looks awlful,very young, ribs sticking out, so thin looks like dehydrated and malnurished, if animal rights were here it would be taken away, do animal rescue have any power on that sort of thing? it has also very pink skin all done the front of its nose and ears so would think it would be susceptible to the sun.

Maybe contact IAR and see if theyr'e still campaigning?
http://www.iar.org.uk/news/2007/apr07-2.shtml

Also, could contact the Goa SPCA - the Governor of Goa is the chief patron
http://www.goaspca.org/about.htm

We visited one of the spice plantations that had Elephants in the lake.
The elephant was in the water and we climbed on its back and got a "power shower".
During this the boys with the elephant gave us a scrubbing brush and said the give the elephant a scrub, as they enjoy it.
But I decided not to scrub when I noticed that the elephant did not have any of those bristley hairs behind the ears.
Now I don't know if they should have any hairs there or not, but worried tha the poor animal may be getting scrubbed too often leading to sore patches.
The problem is, if tourists don't go and visit them they are of no value to the owners and heaven knows what treatment they would get then.
If tourist do visit the animals they may be suffering from too much work and possible abuse.
Whats the answer?
for myself I won't be going to visit the elephants again.