LAOS - LAND OF A MILLION ELEPHANTS

 Laos used to be called the land of a million elephants. Now, due to population pressures, there are less than a thousand and they live in National Protected Areas like Phou Khao Khouay. If these elephants had stayed put in their 2,000 square kilometres of mountains and rivers, all would have been well. But they didn’t. They came down and ravaged Ban Na, a village 82 kilometres from Vientiane. It’s not a new village and was not troubled by elephants before. The villagers grew pineapples and bananas, but when they planted sugar cane, the elephants couldn't believe their good fortune. Why would they waste energy ploughing through mountainous forests, when they could get all they wanted on the easily-accessible lowlands? But the lowlands belong to several farming villages.

Elephants are herbivores, eating up to 150 kilos a day. And they trample all in their path: even a villager once. The people are poor and saw sugar cane as a way out of poverty. It was hard to give up, but if they stopped, they reasoned, the elephants would return to the mountains. But the elephants didn't.

Now the resourceful villagers have turned their despair into hope for a sustainable future for both themselves and the elephants and if you go to Ban Na, you can see how they are doing it.

At the information centre in Vientiane you can read what's available in the village, how much it costs and who gets what. Some money goes on a trekking permit for the National Protected Area. Some goes to the home-stay. Some goes to the Elephant Conservation and Research fund. Some goes into the revolving fund from which villagers can borrow money for seeds, house repairs and school fees. And it's not just Ban Na your money is helping, but other villagers who lose their crops to elephants. Two guides must accompany you to the observation tower. The guides know first-aid, but really, if you are charged by a wild elephant would there be enough of you left to do first-aid on? 

Why is the project centred in Ban Na and not in the other villages? Because Ban Na has a natural salt lick. It is this on which the project pivots. The observation tower overlooks the salt lick.

The walk to the tower is 4.5 kilometres - but easy even for lounge lizards. The first small challenge is a lengthy bridge. It’s only inches above the rice paddies, so you'll not break your neck if you do fall off. Over the bridge, there are interesting things to see beside the path: hibiscus flowers, beehives up tall trees, bracket fungi in several different colours, butterflies including swallow-tails: edible spiders are perhaps the most unusual (and no I didn’t try one). Of the two guides, Bun That, showed us the spoor of a Common Palm Civet Cat and the fruit it had been eating. Zom Pon, the other guide, showed us bamboo beetles eating what bamboo beetles like best: bamboo.

It’s estimated there are 44,000 Asian elephants left in the wild, 800 of them occur in Phou Khao Khouay and about 32 are around Ban Na. Since the project commenced, three baby elephants have been born. So now you see how your visit can influence the survival of the Asian elephant.

Did we see any? Well, I thought I heard an elephant late afternoon, but it was close to dinner time and it might have been my stomach rumbling. So, no, we didn't, but we stayed here in July in the monsoon. You will be more sensible and visit in September, October or November around the nights of the full moon then you should see elephants.