Elephant School

Unsuspecting visitors to an elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai's Mae Taeng district may be surprised to find foreign men and women eagerly bathing a herd of elephants.

You might think the task should be done by local men, or mahouts, but these young foreigners are actually students of Ban Mae Taman's Elephant Education Programme. Put simply, they are learning the fine art of the mahout.

As it is the only such school in the world, Elephant Nature Park provides students from all over the world with a rare opportunity to learn about elephants, their behaviour, habitat and relationship with humans.

The school has no fences or walls and uses the natural setting of the river, forest and mountains as its classroom, But in this classroom, the bulky beast is the teacher. The Elephant Education Programme is an alternative activity recently introduced for people keen on elephants.

The camp also provides elephant trekking tours and popular nature programmes for tourists visiting the north of Thailand.  The programmes range from one week to six months.

Sangduen Chailert, programme manager, said participants learn about elephants both in theory and through hands-on experience. They are required to understand the animal's behaviour and determine its moods--what every good mahout should know. Participants also learn to control the animal with commands. Students are required to live with the elephant in the natural setting and some students develop a natural bond with the animal.

''It's a unique experience for participants,'' she said.

Each day starts with students taking the animals for a bath in the river. Elephants ease their way into the water because they love to soak in the river. Students are required to observe the animal's behaviour. They also spend some time in the classroom learning elephant anatomy, universal commands, elephant riding as well as environmental conversation.

Foreign men and women live in lodges in the forest and often prepare herbal cures for sick elephants. They work together happily and attentively ,as if they were real mahouts.

During short breaks and lunch time, Some participants stay close to the animals and spend their time frolicking with the beasts.

''Real mahouts pass on their experiences to the students without formal manuals or textbooks,'' Ms Sangduen said.

Even during dinner, students and trainers continually interact and Karen trainers relate their experiences to the students.

At the end, some of the students are reluctant to leave because of the fulfilling memories derived from spending time with the elephants in the forest. All have developed a strong bond with their charges.

Yale and Oxford universities are also keen on the training programme and recently sent students and lecturers to join the courses.

If elephants can develop feelings of envy, perhaps they would be jealous of their well-fed peers at the camp. Many elephants have no role in today's society because of the ban on logging. Some are taken off to urban zoos while the less fortunate are taken to city streets by their mahouts to sell fruit to tourists.

Even though elephants are unable to live freely in the wild, they still have a right to live 'safely' on this planet.