MAHAMAD SALIM MIYA

As we all know, elephants were used mainly for riding purposes for entertainment and monetary gain in most of the National Parks and tourist places. I personally was completely against it, and I always tried to do something different in my resort.

When I met Coranne, she was completely devastated and demoralized, because she was not allowed to work towards elephant care and preservation the way she wanted. Local authorities did not provide necessary support for this novel voluntary work. I extended help to her in my capacity to create such an environment where elephants are loved and cared for.

We together established an elephant happy hour, which was a new concept at that time, in which we gathered several elephants together, fed them, cleaned them, and walked with them. We tried to change the viewpoint that the elephants are just sources of income. We also enlightened mahouts to not to apply traditional torture methods which could result in long-term damage to the elephants.

These activities encouraged us to do even more for the elephants. As a result, we thought of starting an elephant sanctuary and working towards the care and preservation of these lovely creatures.