Sauraha Operators Shift from Elephant Safaris to Bush Walks

Raj Kumar Rai August 16, 2025 2 minutes read

Sauraha: For decades, elephant safaris were a signature fascination in Chitwan National Stop, drawing hundreds of thousands of guests yearly. The number has divided, with as it were around 45 still included in the trade. Concurring to elephant proprietors, the decay started after the Covid-19 widespread, when numerous found it troublesome to keep up the tall costs of bolstering and caring for elephants. The costs can reach Rs150,000 per month per creature, agreeing to Dipendra Khatiwada, chairman of Joined together Elephant Safari Agreeable. A few proprietors indeed returned elephants to India or sold them off.

The downturn has moreover been fuelled by developing worldwide feedback of elephant rides. In 2014, a Munich-based German association, Pro-Wildlife, called on visit administrators to halt advancing elephant safaris, citing concerns approximately inappropriate treatment. A few European administrators hence dropped the action from their bundles, straightforwardly affecting Sauraha’s visitor flow.

“Many of our European visitors begun saying that elephants endure amid safaris. They no longer needed to ride them,” said Dhruba Giri, a long-time administrator and chair of the Eatery and Bar Affiliation, Sauraha.

Giri, who claims four elephants, has since presented the “bush walk,” where guests walk nearby elephants through prairies and riverbanks. Ceatures have breakfast at the same time the visitors do.

The Joined together Elephant Safari Agreeable, which once had over 60 elephants, presently oversees as it were 30. Its chairperson, Dipendra Khatiwada, recognized that the demonstrate of elephant tourism needs to expand. “We have moreover begun advertising elephant strolls. Sightseers favor encounters where they can connected with elephants without riding them,” he said.(Sauraha) .

Conservationists concur. “If individuals can appreciate observing rhinos, they can moreover appreciate elephants without riding them,” said Ganesh Gasp, chief preservation officer at Chitwan National Stop, the country’s to begin with national stop. “The demonstrate of elephant tourism has to evolve.”