Page 18 - Chiron 2024

Preserving Pachyderms:
The Care and Conservation
of Asian Elephants
by Andrew Higgins, Chair, Southern Thailand Elephant Foundation
The newest elephant hospital in the world sits in seven verdant tropical acres of rolling landscape not far from the town of Khok Kloi on the North Andaman coast in Southern Thailand. Established in 2017, the land on which the hospital lies was formerly a run-down rubber tree plantation and over the last five years has
been converted into the Southern Thailand Elephant Foundation (STEF) Veterinary Centre.
STEF is a UK registered charity and the brainchild of Jakrapob Thaotad whose family have cared for elephants for over 160 years. Jakrapob himself trained as a medical scientist in Bangkok before taking his postgraduate degree in London. On his return to Thailand, he was determined to help the endangered Asian elephant, the national animal of Thailand and an important part of Thai culture, and enlisted my help to set up a charity that could provide free veterinary services, welfare and education to
benefit the 1,000 or so elephants in the southern provinces of Thailand.
The charity was registered
with the Charity Commission in December 2017. The Objects of the Charity include the conservation and protection of Asian elephants and the improvement of their natural environment; providing veterinary care, protection, treatment and security for elephants in need by reason of sickness, maltreatment
or poor circumstances; public education and the promotion
of humane behaviour towards elephants, and encouraging an appreciation of the importance of elephant welfare and the need to prevent cruelty and suffering.
A Board of Trustees was set up
and in early 2018 serious fundraising began. Jakrapob had already found the land, and we were fortunate to get funding from some major Trusts that enabled us to fell the rubber trees and clear the site. In the process we uncovered some overgrown but beautiful manmade pools and their
accompanying wildlife. In designing the layout for the Veterinary Centre, we appointed Lee Sambrook, a well-known elephant curator, then in charge of the elephants at London Zoo, to advise on the plans.
Weather was a constraint. The southern region of Thailand has only two seasons – the wet and the dry. From April to October the southwest monsoon brings rain and often heavy storms with around 2,400 millimetres
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