Domesticated Elephants in Indonesia

Historically, there was a tradition of domesticated elephants on Sumatra focussed on the courts of the Royal Sultans. But with the coming of the colonial powers, the tradition declined and died out entirely in the 19^th century.

Despite having no recent tradition of domestication, in 1985, the Indonesian government resorted to a policy of capturing and training elephants in response to increasing human-elephant conflict brought about by deforestation. The policy involved the establishment of six Elephant Training Centres which were later renamed Elephant Conservation Centres (ECC’s). The centres rapidly grew in size and by the end of 2000, were operating at capacity with more than 350 elephants in residence.

Many conservation and welfare groups have great reservations concerning this strategy. The ECC’s readily admit that the standard of mahouts is quite poor and that they have no real bond with the elephants. Many people have expressed reservation about the methods used in the camps and there are known to be problems with overcrowding.

The government is also known to be concerned about the large cost of maintaining the ECC’s, which use up the majority of the budget for elephant conservation. One answer might be for the ECC elephants to be utilised by the tourist industry, but it appears that poor standards of training and mahoutship may subject potential tourists to an unacceptable level of risk.